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Name: Rob Simpson
Title: Senior Director, Sustainability, Thematic and Emerging Portfolio Risks
Organization: La Caisse
Topics of interest:
- Sustainable design and building science
- Climate Resilience
- The global energy transition
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What motivated you to join the GRESB Foundation Board?
As the climate crisis continues to worsen, the importance of global leadership across key industries has never been more important. GRESB provides this leadership for real assets, and the opportunity to contribute to the growth of the standard in a highly complex environment is both a privilege and very appealing.
How does your organization view sustainability and what is your organization’s approach to responsible investing?
La Caisse has been an industry leader in sustainability for many years and was one of the world’s first institutional investors to adopt a highly innovative climate strategy with ambitious targets. As an organization, it has been continuously raising the bar: after exceeding its climate targets in 2024, La Caisse reaffirmed its sustainable investing convictions by announcing in June 2025 its aim to reach CAD 400 billion in climate action investments by 2030. We remain convinced that sustainable investing is key to long-term value creation.
How does your organization use GRESB and its data?
We annually use the GRESB survey process as our main source of data collection across our global real estate portfolio. That data feeds several internal processes, including having influence and impact over our investment and asset management activities. Additionally, we use GRESB data to develop internal sustainability scoring metrics, to establish short and long-term priorities, and to create annual asset/portfolio-level objectives with our partners and managers.
In brief, can you tell us where you think sustainability needs to go in the future and what role organizations like GRESB will play?
Sustainability needs to continue its evolution towards being a fundamental element within the value proposition across real assets of all vintage and quality. Developing the links between performance and value will ensure that investment dollars are allocated in a way that maximizes both environmental and financial benefits. Organizations like GRESB will be essential in providing the data necessary to assess the risks and opportunities linked to the transition.
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