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GRESB Newsletter | The 2021 reporting season is underway

Published on 23 Apr 2021

The 2021 reporting season is underway

The GRESB Reporting season is underway with real estate and infrastructure managers logging into the GRESB Portal to start their Assessment.  
 

We hope to work with you to maximize response rates and deliver timely ESG data and benchmarks to the industry.

Future Outlook

Earlier this month, we announced the development of a GRESB Roadmap, which will outline the future and ongoing strategic direction of the Assessments.  

While the new GRESB Foundation governance is being finalized, we will be relying on our GRESB Real Estate and Infrastructure governance groups to develop this Roadmap. The first round of meetings with the Advisory Board and Benchmark Committees took place in the first two weeks of April and we are now collecting feedback on the first Assessment roadmap draft. Based on this feedback we will define a 2021 engagement schedule with the governance groups and the wider industry. We expect to release our Roadmap by the end of 2021. 

We look forward to supporting you through this reporting season.

See our participant guidance with Assessment resources and information on our free online training for GRESB reporting. And if you have questions about completing any part of your Assessment, just contact us and we’ll get you moving again. GRESB also maintains a network of informed & experienced organizations who can assist you to complete your GRESB Assessment, manage your ESG data and advance your performance. To find out which partner can best assist you, see our Partner Directory. 

New 2021 GRESB Assessment Resources

We have high levels of interest in our online training and Q&As. Check out the most recent recordings and new dates below.

Response Check

You can now request a Response Check in the GRESB Portal. Response Checks will be carried out by SRI and feature a careful review of your Assessment response followed by a 1-hour discussion call. We strongly encourage participants to place their request and schedule their call as early as possible because there are a fixed number of appointments and it is not uncommon for requests to surpass availability. It is not necessary to have the Assessment completed when placing the request. You can find out more about Response Checks here.

Participant Agreement 

As a reminder, all 2021 participating  managers are required to have signed the GRESB Participant Agreement, which includes our Participant T&Cs. This will also ensure that you receive an invoice to pay your 2021 fees. If you have not already received an invoice or are ready to start that process, please fill in the short form on this page. 

You can find the 2021 fee schedule here. 

Once again, the Portal has opened April 1 and, as in previous years, the GRESB Real Estate and Infrastructure Assessment submissions are due by July 1, 2021.  See the full 2021 Assessment timeline.

If you have any questions about participating in the 2021 Assessments or any feedback for us, please contact the GRESB Helpdesk at any time. 

Best regards,

GRESB

Benefits of Participating in the 2021 GRESB Assessment

By participating, you’ll have access to high-quality ESG data and powerful analytical tools to benchmark your ESG performance, identify areas for improvement and engage with your investors. You’ll also be better positioned to attract new investors who require more extensive ESG disclosure. Learn more about the benefits of participating.

Training and Q&A Sessions

GRESB offers online training to help walk you through the reporting process. You can register for the free courses here. 

On May 11 and 12, we will hold another round of Q&A sessions for the Real Estate and Infrastructure Assessments. You can register for the session that best fits your time zone via the links below;   

  • May 11 | Infrastructure Asia-Pacific | Register
  • May 11 | Infrastructure EMEA and Americas | Register
  • May 12 | Real Estate Asia-Pacific | Register
  • May 12 | Real Estate EMEA and Americas | Register

For those who are based in Singapore, our GRESB Training Partner, Paia Consulting, is organizing an in-person training session on April 27. Find out more information here.

What’s new?

GRESB Foundation

GRESB is working with the Interim Foundation Council (the name for the initial Foundation Board prior to the Board being officially constituted) to finalize the documents to formally establish the GRESB Foundation. We have been meeting regularly to review the documents and expect that these can be finalized in the next few weeks.

Due to the delay regarding the establishment of the Foundation, we are utilizing a modified approach to governance for 2021 utilizing a longer transition period to the Foundation. The existing governance groups (Real Estate and Infrastructure Advisory Boards  and Benchmark Committees) will continue to meet as per usual until the Foundation is fully established. They will review the GRESB strategy and work on the 2022 Assessments.

Once the Foundation is fully established and all Foundation Committees are in place, the existing governance groups will cease, and all work will transfer to the Foundation (including its Board and Committees). The process to establish the Foundation Committees needs to be designed by the Foundation Board. There may be differences compared to the existing governance groups in terms of structure, role and composition. The process for establishing these committees should be fair and transparent. We will advise all GRESB members once more information is available.

SFDR

Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) Level I requirements have come into effect, and although a momentous milestone, there is still a long way to go until full implementation and disclosure. Despite its simple goal, the new SFDR requirements still leave room for diverse interpretation. As investors and fund managers embark on the journey of getting more familiar with the interpretation of the regulation as well as product disclosure depending on their categorization, peer discussions and engagement with their underlying investments are needed to make implementation and full disclosure at both entity and product level successful.  

GRESB is proactively monitoring the discussions and if you would like to keep up to date on our proposed solution and relevant SFDR resources  you can do so here

TCFD

Pressure to disclose climate-related information is ramping up globally. New Zealand introduced a bill that will make climate-related disclosures mandatory for many listed issuers, large registered banks, investors, and asset managers. This was followed quickly by the re-introduction of a bill in the United States, which would require public companies to disclose specific climate-related information. GRESB seeks to help fund managers and investors understand their processes in relation to the TCFD’s recommendations, widely recognized as international best practice.

Transition Risk Tool

The latest CRREM publication, CRREM Report No. 5 on lessons learned and best-practice users, highlights the utility and versatility of the CRREM decarbonization pathways and sets precedence for best practice transition risk and climate goal alignment communication within the real estate sector. Highlighting the importance of industry standardization, GRESB seeks to make information on the Paris alignment, performance, and transition risks of Member assets even more accessible to them.

Vacancies

Interested in joining our team? Check out our current vacancies below

GRESB Insights

Health & Well-being 

You can access all GRESB Insights posts here. GRESB is also opening up submissions for the month of May for the topic “Regulatory Environment.” You can submit your article and find out more about the topics on our Insights page.

GRESB, CRREM and PCAF Join Forces

GRESB, PCAF (Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials), and CRREM (Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor) are partnering up in 2021 to provide investors and banks with the guidance they need to measure and report on their financed emissions from real estate. Furthermore, this partnership is meant to help financial institutions formulate, set, and implement forward-looking targets in relation to their financed emissions.


The full press release can be found here

PREA Real Estate Investment Management ESG Awards

The PREA Real Estate Investment Management ESG awards were introduced by PREA to recognize private equity real estate funds at the forefront of ESG within real estate investing.


The winners of the 2021 PREA Real Estate Investment Management ESG Awards in the four categories can be found here.

Events

ESG & Sustainability Working Group – April 22 

  • At GIIA’s next ESG meeting we will be convening a workshop focused on the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation in order to update members on the latest developments, review member experiences in light of the March 10th deadline for level 1 disclosure and look ahead to next steps

GRESB 2021 Real Estate Training – April 27 

  • Paia will be running an in-person GRESB Real Estate Assessment training in Singapore, which online participants can also join. Similar to GRESB’s online training, the in-person training is designed to support participants reporting to the 2021 Real Estate Assessment. 

GRESB Canada Member Call | co-hosted by REALPAC 2021 – May 5 

  • GRESB and REALPAC will co-host an open call-line for active participants to discuss challenges, gain support, hear latest updates, and generally share in the assessment process. The agenda is wide open to your questions and the sharing of best practices. Unique technical issues can be followed up offline after.

CX in Real Estate – Future Leaders Programme – May 6

  • A pioneering 5 day online short course (spread over 6 weeks) which will immerse you in new thinking about the landlord and tenant relationship. Delivered in 8 units, you’ll come away equipped with the practical skills to design and implement  a successful customer experience (CX) strategy that will help drive revenue, increase customer retention and build brand loyalty.

PERE Global Summit – May 10-May 14 

  • The world’s largest gathering of private real estate capital at the most innovative event of the year – the PERE Global Summit on 10-14 May connects you with the industry leaders to stay ahead of the current markets. Ruben Langbroek, Head of Asia Pacific will also be speaking at this event.

Medição de ESG em Portfólios Imobiliários – Vantagens e Metodologias (Portuguese) – May 10-May 14 

  • In this webinar, moderated by Felipe Faria, CEO of GBC Brasil, we invited Dan Winters, Head of Americas, and Victor Fonseca, Real Estate Analyst, to talk about how more than 5 trillion dollars in real estate assets use the platform methodology to measure your ESG results. This webinar will be held in Portuguese. 

Future of Construction Summit – May 12-May 13 

  • The Future of Construction Summit will explore how the entire ecosystem of construction will change, how much value is at risk for incumbents, and how companies can collaborate and leverage innovative approaches to create a more profitable and sustainable industry.

RIA Virtual Conference – June 7-June 11 

  • Canada’s largest event on responsible investing. This year, we are hosting 10+ live webcasts with national and international experts, which will run from Monday, June 7th to Friday, June 11th, plus a primer session on June 4th.

ESG IN REAL ESTATE SUMMIT – June 16-June 17 

  • It is impossible to imagine the construction and real estate sector without sustainability, and it is high on the corporate agenda throughout the world. We all know that the sector faces major challenges such as urbanization, climate change, health & well-being, resource scarcity, inequality & diversity, and affordability. Ruben Langbroek will also be speaking at this event.


For a more detailed overview of GRESB upcoming events please visit our events page

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