The GRESB Foundation hosted its second annual, in-person Standards Committee meetings in London. Despite being a global membership body, we had nearly all the Standards Committee members in attendance—some traveling from as far away as Hong Kong, Sydney, and Mexico City.
The agenda was packed with meetings of the Real Estate and Infrastructure Standards Committees, Data Center Working Group (in collaboration with iMasons Climate Accord) and Change Management Working Group meetings, a lecture by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, Juan Francisco Palacios and Bram van der Kroft, as well as a tour of AXA Investment Managers’ iconic Dolphin Square (re)development.
The week kicked off with an all-day Data Center Working Group meeting. The group has been working tirelessly over the past few months and was able to showcase their work to the broader Foundation community. The in-person work session has brought them closer to developing new guidelines for data centers and will ultimately produce a new, fit-for-purpose standard for data centers. To read more about GRESB’s focus on data centers, check out the recently published whitepaper on Navigating data center sustainability with GRESB in 2025.
The Change Management Working Group also had a productive meeting, which resulted in soon-to-be published Principles for Governing the Standards Development Process. These principles should be well received by GRESB stakeholders who appreciate the Foundation’s transparent communication.
Both the Real Estate (RESC) and Infrastructure Standards (ISC) Committees also enjoyed their time together. Their commitment to the Foundation was evident not only in the countless hours they devote to their committees, but also in their willingness to travel and be together in London. The RESC and ISC continued to make progress on their 2025 work plans and to envision how to make the standards more useful to investors and managers, while reducing reporting burden.
It is worth mentioning that the success of these committees is determined by the caliber of their members, and the Foundation is extremely grateful to benefit from such broad talent across the real asset industries. In particular, we celebrated Foundation award recipients for their outstanding contributions to the RESC and ISC: Andrea Palmer, Ben Thomas, Rob Simpson, Katherine Sherwin, Jon Collinge, and Ruairi Revell. These members have volunteered an extraordinary amount of time to improving the standards, the functioning of their respective committees, as well as their wider industries. As an added bonus, they are a pleasure to work with!
We also received a lecture by MIT researchers who showcased their interactive tool, which allows investors to explore the alignment of priorities on critical matters, such as the extent to which REITs in a portfolio align with their preferences on sustainability issues and how this alignment compares to others in the industry. We are grateful to have their thought leadership continue to validate the thesis that sustainability is good business.
Lastly, we saw the fruits of our labor in person. AXA IM is a strong supporter of GRESB, having reported to the Real Estate Assessment for several years; their Deputy Head of Responsible Investment Real Assets currently serves on the Foundation as a RESC member. The Foundation’s week concluded with a tour of the iconic multifamily asset Dolphin Square, which has set ambitious carbon targets: a 95% projected reduction in carbon emissions, an 80% reduction in on-site energy demand, and 100% reduction in fossil fuel usage.
Despite the week being a marathon of meetings and events, the most prominent feeling shared among members was a sense of gratitude rather than exhaustion. All of us were reminded of the significance of real assets to our increasingly virtual lives. Many of us no longer work full-time in an office and may only connect with our coworkers in two dimensions. Relationships with colleagues improved dramatically after meeting face to face—we were able to more fully understand each other’s perspectives and gain each other’s trust. There is just no substitute for IRL and our ongoing collaborations will continue to benefit from the time we spend together.