Over the past decade, public health research has established a clear and significant connection between where individuals grow up and their lifelong health outcomes. Across the United States, neighborhoods just a few miles away from one another can have average life expectancies that differ by up to 30 years.
We are now in a critical period requiring rapid and urgent action to retrofit our buildings in a bid to address climate change. The Paris Agreement set a global imperative to restrict global warming to 2⁰C or below. To achieve this ambition, global greenhouse gas emissions need to reduce rapidly today with developed economies ultimately becoming Net Zero by 2050. We cannot afford to bide our time and cut emissions later.
Space utilization – Market trends and transformation
Everyone agrees that an image is worth 1,000 words. In his book ‘Information Visualization’, Colin Ware states: “The eye and the visual cortex of the brain form a massive parallel processor that provides the highest-bandwidth channel into human cognitive centers.” With the human visual system processing more information than all other senses combined, visuals can be deciphered by the brain much quicker than written information.
Pivoting for 2020: Urgent ESG Trends Transforming Global CRE
2020 is marked by urgent global sustainability issues that are deeply inter-dependent. Safe-guarding human health, climate action and stabilizing the global economy have risen to the top of our list of priorities.
Global focus has shifted significantly towards climate change and the actions that governments, businesses and individuals are taking to mitigate its impacts. The term “net zero” specifically, has generated tangible traction. For the real estate industry, a driving force to transition towards net zero has been the World Green Building Council (WGBC) and their Advancing Net Zero (ANZ) project which first launched in June 2016.
Socially Responsible Investing Becoming Mainstream in the United States
While Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) has been a dominant theme in the European markets for some time, it has recently gained significant traction in the U.S markets as well. In fact, SRI-focused investment strategies now account for over one-fourth of total assets under management in the U.S.
Why Decarbonization Strategies have the potential to transform the real estate market
The two central pieces of the Paris Climate Agreement, limiting the average global temperature rise to 1.5°C and becoming a carbon neutral economy by 2050, are starting to hit the real estate industry
Stepping up the Reporting Game – External Assurance
Other than the GRESB Assessments, how many sustainability reporting frameworks or disclosure standards could you name? The recent decades have brought the United Nation (UN)’s Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and many more to the sustainability ecosystem.
Getting ready for GRESB season – Reporting tips and tricks
GRESB is imminently approaching! Which for a lot of us in the ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) industry, it means getting ready to report all the relevant activities that have been undertaken by funds over the course of the past year. In order to smoothen your reporting process and evidence collection, I have looked to outline some tips and tricks which will hopefully help you successfully deliver this year’s submission.
