April Newsletter: GRESB Public Disclosure, new training videos and assessment resources

What’s new in April

The 2023 GRESB Assessments are officially underway, with participants logging into the GRESB Portal every day to submit their data and share their sustainability efforts and achievements.

To help ensure a smoother and successful reporting process, we have compiled additional resources and launched a new online training platform.

Online training platform
Completely free, our new online training platform features the latest and most up-to-date videos and tutorials to help you through your 2023 GRESB submission. Available courses include:

  • Real Estate Assessment Training
  • Infrastructure Fund Assessment Training
  • Infrastructure Asset Assessment Training

This week, we will be adding brand new trainings on how to use the asset spreadsheet (including tab-by-tab walkthroughs) and a training on public disclosure. Log into the platform to access the new trainings.

Please note that the login details are not the same as for the GRESB Portal, and you will need to create a new account to access the courses.

The top 10 questions about GRESB, answered
To help participants navigate the reporting process, we have compiled and addressed the most common inquiries we have received to date in our latest article:  “The top 10 questions about GRESB, answered.

GRESB Assessment services
Additionally, we’d like to share a reminder that GRESB offers a series of pre- and post-assessment services to help new and existing participants maximize the value from their ESG efforts. Learn more about the Response Check, Review Period, and Results Review here.

We hope that all participants are experiencing a smooth and productive reporting period. For any questions, please contact us.

GRESB Public Disclosure

As part of our annual Public Disclosure Assessment, GRESB collects information on the transparency of the ESG practices of newly listed real assets companies and REITS from various public records. Each company is then assigned a “Public Disclosure Level” ranging from A to E based on their transparency on ESG performance.

Our rankings of listed real estate and infrastructure companies and REITs are designed to assist GRESB Investors Members in monitoring the transparency of their investments with regard to their ESG practices and performance.

Please note that in 2023, the annual GRESB Public Disclosure data collection process is limited to only cover new constituents for which no previous data is available. Constituents that were part of last year’s Public Disclosure dataset will have their latest data carried over to the 2023 Public Disclosure dataset.

Public companies included in the Public Disclosure are encouraged to review and update their information before July 1Learn more about GRESB Public Disclosure and how to review your data here.

New GRESB Chief Financial Officer

We are pleased to announce that Séverine Aléon has joined GRESB and Asset Impact as our new Group Chief Financial Officer.

With more than 20 years of experience in the fields of finance, strategy, transformations, risk management, compliance, and audit, Séverine’s expertise and vision will help guide us towards a sustainable and prosperous future.

Foundation update

Call for nominations to the GRESB Foundation Standards Committees
The GRESB Foundation is seeking new candidates to serve on its Standards Committees for both the real estate and infrastructure industries.

In response to high interest from the GRESB community, the Foundation Board has decided to accept and review nominations on an ongoing basis for each Committee, and appoint new members as and when vacancies become available.

At present, there are several vacancies in both Real Estate and Infrastructure Standards Committees, and the Foundation Board is aiming to start selecting candidates by early May 2023, so please send your application as soon as possible to be considered for this next round of nominations.

Shaping the 2024 GRESB Standards
Recent discussions with Real Estate and Infrastructure Standards Committees have focused on planning and developing content to shape the 2024 Standards, as well as looking further ahead to prioritize research for longer-term developments. The main issues discussed for real estate include residential real estate, building certifications, and energy performance, while infrastructure discussions have focused on assets in development as well as closer alignment to TCFD through the integration of climate-related opportunities. Development of the approach to and inclusion of net zero across all Standards, currently in focus through the ongoing Net Zero Working Groups, continues to be a top priority for both committees and will be the focus of upcoming meetings in May.

Over the coming months, the Foundation will continue to review, research, and implement plans on a number of these topics in order to finalize content for the 2024 Standards changes.

Net Zero Working Groups
The Net Zero Working Groups for real estate and infrastructure have successfully conducted their first two (out of three) working group sessions, during which topic-focused workstreams within each Working Group have presented and discussed the outcomes and progress of their research.

The Working Groups are currently in the process of drafting their respective output documents, which are set to be presented to the corresponding Standards Committees next month. The Real Estate Net Zero Working Group will provide a ledger of the pros and cons of different approaches to net-zero assessment within the industry. The Infrastructure Net Zero Working Group will provide an evaluation of the extent to which various aspects of net zero are addressed in industry-leading frameworks.

GRESB eagerly anticipates the final output of the Working Groups, which the respective Standards Committees will review and assess during their meeting in May. The Standards Committees will use these outputs to inform the integration of net zero into the GRESB Standards, which is expected to contribute significantly towards providing clear and contextualized information to the financial industry regarding the net-zero journeys of real assets in the GRESB universe.

Upcoming GRESB events & GRESB on demand

Interested in learning more about the current landscape of ESG in APAC? Then make sure to join us online for our upcoming GRESB Inside ESG event:

Missed any of our past events? All of our webinars are freely available on demand. You can simply register for any of our online events to access the event recording at your convenience. Watch our recent past webinars via the links below:

Contribute to GRESB Insights

Through GRESB Insights, we seek to highlight case studies on ESG integration in real assets, data-driven analyses into how the industry is responding to sustainability challenges, and educational articles exploring topics covered in the GRESB Assessments.

The theme this month was “SFDR Reporting.” Below are the latest GRESB Insights:

See all of our GRESB Insights here. Next month’s topic is Sustainable Financing. View our editorial guidelines and submit your article here.

Upcoming industry events

Join RELPI and GRESB in New York for a day-long conference that discusses the best practices in sustainability and accelerating industry change. The event will feature 25 of the largest institutional investors and their consultants.

PERE’s annual Europe Forum provides an opportunity for attendees to connect with influential investors, fund and asset managers, and developers. The event will include investor panels and presentations about EMEA private real estate markets.

This event will gather GBA Low Carbon Buildings Top 100 awardees and other guests for a variety of outstanding low-carbon building case-sharing and insights on decarbonization in the built environment.

IPE Real Estate is holding their annual global conference on May 16, and presenting awards that seek to applaud innovation and excellence in institutional real estate investment. Attend for networking opportunities and panels by top level speakers.

To better understand the impact of ESG on the performance of non-listed real estate funds, INREV and GRESB have commissioned a paper that discusses the link between GRESB scores and fund-level financial returns. This event will present key conclusions and results from this research.

A chance for members to network with colleagues and potential partners, this event will focus on what’s next for infrastructure, technology, housing, and more.

The third annual ESG in Real Estate Summit will bring together senior real estate investors, owners, operators, developers, lenders, and solution providers to examine how the commercial real estate industry can seize opportunities and overcome challenges related to developing and implementing ESG initiatives.

An event centered around helping businesses transition into a sustainable model, with discussions by speakers about decarbonizing business and supply chain transformation.

See our events calendar for a full overview of upcoming events.

Careers at GRESB

GRESB is growing and looking for new people! Please feel free to share with your network.

Our most recently added open positions:​​​​​

What are we reading?

> AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023 | The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

> Why investors are driving ESG transparency in a material world | Institutional Real Estate Asia Pacific

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