Real estate sector continues to lead on sustainability: GRESB

This year’s Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) reveals that sustainability reporting has improved in coverage and quality of data, with the average overall score increasing due to increasing implementation and measurement.

The average score is now 47 (out of 100) which is up nine points this year. The benchmark collects data from 637 listed property companies and private equity real estate funds, covering 56,000 buildings with an aggregate value of $2.1 trillion.

GRESB found that collectively, in 2013, the commercial real estate sector reduced its energy consumption by about 0.8 per cent, carbon emissions fell by 0.3 per cent, and water consumption fell by 2.3 per cent.

Sustainability is assessed annually by GRESB with a focus on: executive decisions, plans and policies; performance measurement; and stakeholder engagement.

The data provided by GRESB allows pension funds and other institutional investors to incorporate responsible investment principles into their decision-making. It is a source of portfolio-level sustainability data for the real estate industry, with  more than 40 institutional investors, representing $5.5 trillion in assets under management, using it for timely, actionable information about the sustainability performance of property portfolios.

Five years after the launch of the benchmark in 2009, GRESB participation has become standard practice for many of the world’s fund managers and listed property companies. There has been a more than 220 percent increase in response rate since 2009.

Sponsored Content

To view the results click here

 

Leave a Comment

Sort content by

Is the Great Rotation passing pension funds by?

The prospect of a seismic shift from bond to equity investments looks set to pass most of the world’s pension funds by, argue experts. The concept of a ‘Great Rotation’ rose to prominence following its use by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in October. It argued in a note that “the era of bond outperformance

APG’s Wuijster refines asset management

APG, which manages €314 billion ($480 billion), has always been innovative. Ronald Wuijster earned a reputation as somewhat of a pension rockstar when he introduced the idea of intellectual property rights as an asset class and bought the music rights to a number of high profile musicians from the contemporary to classical. That investment, which

Parrado’s guide to building sovereign wealth funds

They may be on opposite sides of the Earth, but Chile in Latin America and Central Asia’s sparsely populated Mongolia share more than a few similarities. Both boast some of the biggest copper deposits in the world and now Mongolia has turned to Chile for advice on how best to steward income from its forecast

Partnership creates global events network

Conexus Financial, the financial services media and events company and publisher of top1000funds.com, has formed a partnership with the New York-based World Pension Forum (WPF) to create a major international conference business catering to the world’s largest institutional investors. Conexus will apply its events management expertise and experience to enhance existing WPF events – three

Embracing board diversity at HESTA

The Australian fund, HESTA Superannuation stands out among its peer of industry funds for a few reasons, not the least of which is its predominantly female (80 per cent) member base, but it’s also one that has seen notable growth in the past 20 years. From a fiduciary perspective, the fund has gone from less than

Swiss referendum: funds’ headache or investor utopia?

The idea of referendums setting the agenda for institutional investors may be a frightening pipe dream in much of the world, but Switzerland’s unique brand of direct democracy is set to revolutionise its funds’ priorities. Swiss funds are due to be anointed as no less than the country’s official guardians against “rip-off” executive salaries. That

Previous