Making your building ‘smart’ from the very beginning Residential developments are facing new challenges, with tenants expecting increased comfort and proven sustainability in the places where they live. At Nuuka, we recognize that urban consolidation is increasing in our cities. Wherever you look around the world, the ‘home of the future’ is most often a […]
Participate in the 2017 GRESB Health & Well-being Module
In 2015, our Green Health Partnership research team worked with GRESB and its stakeholders to develop the first GRESB Health & Well-being Module. Last year, 174 real estate entities – 23% of all entities participating in the GRESB Real Estate Assessment – demonstrated market leadership by participating in the inaugural health-focused module. This year, participants […]
One of the major challenges facing the real estate industry today is the 30% cost of energy inefficiency and waste that is burdening owners. What can real estate owners do to address this problem?
How data can make your buildings more productive, profitable and resilient to change. Notes from the 2017 GRESB-Siemens Spring Conference Some colleagues and I attended a fascinating event a few days ago organised by GRESB and Siemens which focused on climate change, the contributions real estate makes to emissions, and our ability to make significant […]
Companies are increasingly asked by their investors to report on their greenhouse gas emissions either in their mainstream financial reports or through sustainability reporting frameworks such as CDP and GRESB.
4 ESG Takeaways for the Real Estate Sector from the 2017 GRESB Siemens Spring Conference
The first annual GRESB Spring Conference took place last week at the Crystal in London, hosted by Siemens, and those of us who were there are still processing the many insights and takeaways from the event. The venue was full of inspiring people — attendees, presenters and moderators — all gathered in one place. The combined […]
Reduce, reuse, recycle” is a well-known mantra, even for those who don’t spend most of their day thinking sustainability. But when it comes to recycling, how much do many of us know about the complexities and possibilities. Here are some interesting facts about commercial glass recycling re-posted from Philippa Gill, Partner at Verdextra, a boutique […]
Sharing Insights from Greengage Breakfast Workshop: Using GRESB to Deliver ESG in Real Estate
Investors increasingly view ESG as a core part of their investment analysis as its link to CFP in terms of reducing risks, improving performance and building reputation is becoming evident. Thus, there is a clear need for companies to embed ESG considerations in their strategy and business practice, as well as communicating this to the […]
2017: Stable assessments and new products & services When we launched GRESB more than seven years ago, our main goal was to help companies and funds assess the sustainability performance of their portfolios. At the time, there weren’t many programs linking companies and investors to sustainability metrics. Fast forward to today and sustainability has now […]
Three steps to heaven: marginal gains make a difference
The doctrine of marginal gains, the simple idea that the way to outperform in sport is to target small incremental improvements, is now taking the business world by storm. Dave Brailsford, the performance director of British Cycling, has demonstrated that by making a 1% improvement in a whole host of areas, the cumulative gains end […]
It’s a new year and a clean slate. Imagine this is the year you’ve resolved you WILL get a handle on the performance of your assets, your department, your company. You plan to request and review your departmental reports on a consistent timeframe that will help you analyze and make the right decisions in a […]
Addressing stranded asset risk in real estate investment
The value of assets is vulnerable to factors such as environmental challenges, changing resource landscapes, technological innovation, changes in regulations and liability and evolving social norms. Such changes can result in the devaluation or non-performance of assets, thus making them ‘stranded’. This concept of ‘stranded assets’ has been prominently used to discuss the impact of […]
Saving the Environment and Improving Your Portfolio with Real Estate
The right real estate investments can have a surprisingly positive impact on the environment Buildings account for about a third of total carbon emissions globally. This presents a real opportunity for investors who seek to maintain a diversified portfolio and contribute to improving the environment. The most sustainable real estate companies may also turn out […]
Real Estate Just Got Its Own Industry Classification – It Deserves Its Own ESG Rating
Effective today MSCI and the S&P’s Dow Jones Indices’ Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS), will add its first additional Sector since inception in 1999: Real Estate. That’s big news! Historically real estate has been included as part of the Financial Sector alongside banks, diversified financials and insurance companies. Establishing real estate as its own categorization […]
Private Equity & ESG Disclosure: a View across the Risk Spectrum
As PERE Research & Analytics shared in its Q3 Fundraising Report, value-add and opportunistic real estate investment strategies are topping the charts in both number of funds seeking capital as well as in total equity amounts targeted. According to Preqin’s Q3 2016 Fundraising Update, Q3 alone saw 13 value-add and 8 opportunistic funds hold a […]
2016 GRESB Real Estate Assessment: What You Need to Know about Your Results
The 2016 GRESB data has been available for over a month, and judging from the phone calls and emails received by the GRESB Helpdesk, the 750+ entities who submitted their ESG data are busy evaluating their performance and writing internal reports explaining how they did. At the same time, the GRESB team has been playing […]
The Massive Need for Infrastructure Investment and Climate Change – a Balancing Act
Infrastructure is the foundation and connective tissue of society. In its broadest sense, it covers everything above and below surface (including both land and water). That’s buildings; energy generation (renewable and conventional) and transmission; road, rail and the various modes of transport using it; transport hubs like ports and airports; clean and dirty water; etc. […]
Five Key Takeaways from the New GRESB Health & Well-being Module
The GRESB Health and Well-being Module is a new tool to understand how property companies and funds around the world are promoting health and well-being in their internal operations and through the real estate and services they offer to customers. The Module is predicated on the recognition that health and well-being is emerging as an […]
