Global real assets benchmarking authority teams up with software pioneer to raise the bar on ESG data quality.
AMSTERDAM (September 19, 2018) – GRESB, the global ESG benchmark for real assets, and Measurabl, the world’s most widely adopted software for real estate sustainability data management, have formed a partnership to create a new GRESB ESG Data Quality Standard and Quality Metric in order to elevate and enable the use of sustainability data in any commercial real estate transaction.
The GRESB ESG Data Quality Standard will be open to all sustainability software companies for the built environment. GRESB Global Partners and GRESB Premier Partners will have the exclusive opportunity to be part of a Data Quality Technical Working Group to provide input and share their expertise with the goal of creating an objective, open standard that will be widely adopted by the industry.
Over 900 real estate companies and property funds representing some 79,000 assets valued in excess of USD $3.5 trillion report to GRESB annually, with Measurabl being a primary data partner. Measurabl alone tracks ESG performance on more than 6 billion square feet worth of real estate spread across 70 countries. With GRESB, the two encompass the largest and most comprehensive real estate benchmarking database in the world.
“Our goal is to elevate the trust in and credibility of ESG reporting,” explained Sander Paul van Tongeren, Co-Founder and Managing Director of GRESB. “As a result, real estate stakeholders will have the confidence to act on ESG data.”
Doug Hodge, former CEO of PIMCO, one of the world’s largest investment managers with $1.75 trillion in assets, said, “ESG data is foundational to a well-functioning capital market. Since real estate is such a significant asset class, it will benefit disproportionately from GRESB and Measurabl’s leadership on data quality and building benchmarking.”
Sustainability, often referred to using the acronym ESG for “environmental, social, governance,” is used by businesses and investors in creating and executing strategies seeking superior financial returns with less risk. It is a key component of real estate investment, lending, insurance, and leasing decisions for which GRESB is by far the most used ESG benchmark.
“Real estate is the world’s largest sector, so it can and should take the lead in elevating trust in its ESG reporting,” said Matt Ellis, Measurabl’s Founder and CEO, and former Director of Sustainability Solutions at CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services company.
Sustainability is particularly relevant to real estate since it is one of the world’s most polluting industries, responsible for nearly 71% of US electricity consumption, 39% of carbon emissions, 14% of potable water usage, and 40% of raw materials usage. People spend 90% of their time indoors – the health and well-being implications of which are only now being understood and addressed using technologies like Measurabl.
“Data quality is king when it comes to real estate transactions,” said Ray Wirta, former CEO of CBRE and current President of The Irvine Company, one of the largest landowners and developers in the US. “I commend Measurabl and GRESB for pioneering the next step in making ESG something real estate professionals can act upon.”
GRESB will coordinate and lead a Data Quality Technical Working Group with the purpose of defining, launching, and maintaining a data quality regime in the GRESB Real Estate and Infrastructure Assessments. Measurabl is the Founding Partner of the Working Group and will contribute its Investment Grade™ data methodologies and benchmarks as well as software tools for calculating and displaying data quality metrics.
The Partners expect to take one year to develop the Data Quality Standard followed by a year-long pilot period exclusively facilitated by Measurabl. As part of the partnership agreement, GRESB and Measurabl will also jointly host an annual “Leaders in Data Quality” Award where top performers in data quality are recognized.
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About GRESB
GRESB is the global environmental, social and governance (ESG) benchmark for real assets. Working in collaboration with the industry, GRESB defines the standard for sustainability performance in real assets providing standardized and validated ESG data to more than 75 institutional investors, representing over USD 18 trillion in institutional capital. In 2018 a record 903 property companies and funds participated in the GRESB Real Estate Assessment, the Infrastructure Assessment covered 75 funds and 280 assets, and 25 portfolios completed the Debt Assessment. Learn more at gresb.com
About Measurabl
Measurabl is the world’s most widely adopted sustainability software for the built environment. More than 6 billion square feet of commercial property valued in excess of USD $1 trillion spread across 70 countries use the software to manage, benchmark, and report sustainability performance. Learn more at www.measurabl.com.