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Name: Dianna Russo
Title: Executive Director
Organization: J.P. Morgan Asset Management
ESG topics of interest:
- Water conservation: The importance of water conservation within real estate operations and asset management.
- Recycling: Strengthening recycling initiatives to support waste reduction efforts.
- Efficiency: Promoting efficiency as a core principle in driving sustainable investment and asset performance.
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What motivated you to join the GRESB Foundation Board?
I believe the work I do aligns well with GRESB’s vision and mission, and being able to join the Foundation Board was an opportunity to bring insights to GRESB based upon my experiences. I work with a variety of our real estate professionals across the country and interact with my counterparts in Europe and Asia.
Additionally, my work allows me to interact with other parts of the firm including, compliance, legal and sustainability focused teams that are investing with sustainability as a factor, or are investing in companies that are helping with the sustainability journeys of other companies. I attend client meetings to explain our ESG processes, but also hear what our clients are hoping to achieve.
My role is one of facilitating and educating. The asset teams bear the burden of the decision-making at the asset level, along with the Portfolio Managers, but we are here to guide them, provide solutions, make suggestions, and ensure they are thinking about the decisions they make, as they can have lasting impressions. We spend time showing the teams why our efforts to decarbonize or look at resilience are fundamental and essential.
How does your organization view ESG and what is your organization’s approach to responsible investing?
J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s (“JPMAM”) approach to sustainable investing is built on our active heritage. We use our global scale to drive engagement with companies through our stewardship activities, share sustainable investing insights informed by our data and research, and offer solutions to help our clients achieve their financial goals and sustainable objectives. The Real Estate America’s (“REA”) business is a division of JPMAM.
How does your organization use GRESB and its data?
REA’s commingled funds use GRESB as a way to help our clients understand our commitment to sustainability as well as allow us to identify opportunities for improvement, gauge the work done at our assets, and assess our relative position within the field of our competitors. As fiduciaries to our clients, looking at risks as well as identifying ways to improve the assets to generate strong returns and efficiencies is a key aspect of our asset management of an asset. GRESB provides the holistic view of the fund as well as granular data to ensure we can identify where there may be opportunities.
REA has always operated under the belief that continuous improvement of our assets with respect to environmental, social, governance, and resilience policies will ultimately improve the environment in which those assets exist and, more importantly, enhance their competitiveness in the marketplace.
What is next for ESG and what role will organizations like GRESB play going forward?
Personally, I believe that ESG, at its core, is about the reduction of waste, evaluation of risk, and longevity of assets. Clients want assets that will perform well by producing strong risk-adjusted returns for their stakeholders. We have always looked at risks to the underlying real estate, but now our universe of risks includes physical and transition risk.
Additionally, as managers, we are all evaluated against competitors, and having benchmarks that can help the clients with their evaluation by providing consistent indicators is important.
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