Menu

GRESB Newsletter | The countdown begins as the reporting period comes to an end.

Published on 29 Jun 2021

The countdown begins as the reporting period is coming to an end.

With only days left until the end of the 2021 GRESB reporting period, the Portal submission rates, from both infrastructure and real estate managers alike, stand as a testament to the industry’s dedication to achieving sustainable real assets. Preliminary GRESB participation numbers demonstrate a change in attitude from easily neglected ‘non-financial’ factors to active engagement in the long term sustainability practices of businesses. 

These sentiments are echoed in the industry’s momentum towards net zero initiatives and climate related disclosures; from nations, coalitions of financial institutions and real estate industry bodies we are seeing a monumental shift towards sustainability commitments. While commitment is a necessary first step, much focus has now been rightly shifted toward execution. Financial actors and real asset operators alike are in need of credible tools and standards that are able to put their assets and portfolios into the context of these high-level commitments. 

GRESB is proactively working on answering the industry’s call by working on a solutionthat will help its Members evaluate the climate transition risk of their real estate portfolios and assets; you can find out more here.

All participants: The deadline for the 2021 Assessments is July 1, 23:59 PDT

It’s your last chance to log into the Portal to finish your Assessment and be part of the 2021 Benchmark.  If you have questions or need assistance to meet the deadline, just contact us. We’re here to help.

Listed Companies: Your ESG Public Disclosure evaluation is ready for review

If you are a listed property or infrastructure company, GRESB has collected information on the transparency of your sustainability practices sourced from your website, sustainability reports, annual reports and other public records, in order to benchmark your ESG disclosure. 

This information is available for your review in the GRESB Portal. Please review and update this information before July 1, when the Portal closes and we begin the process of validating, scoring and benchmarking the data, and providing the results to our Investor Members. Please see the Public Disclosure Reference Guide for Infrastructure and Real Estate for more information.

Nareit members: The Leader in the Light Supplement is available in the Portal

If you are a GRESB Real Estate Participant and also a member of Nareit, remember to complete the Leader in the Light Supplement, which is the basis for the annual Leader in the Light Awards.

As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about our work or need our assistance with completing your 2021 Assessment. 

Kind regards,
GRESB

GRESB Updates

SFDR | GRESB is introducing an SFDR reporting solution to help real estate, infrastructure, and private equity managers to meet their regulatory disclosure obligations. To support this work we recently conducted a series of interviews with GRESB members sharing and gathering feedback on our prototypes for a Principle Adverse Impact Statements solution for both Real Estate and Infrastructure (Funds and Assets) in compliance with Article 7 of SFDR. A big thanks to all members who provided their valuable feedback.

The adoption of the SFDR Regulator Technical Standards (RTS) from the European Commission is expected by the end of June and we are keeping a watchful eye on any developments.

On the EU Taxonomy side, the EU has released its EU Taxonomy Compass. The EU Taxonomy Compass aims to make the contents of the EU Taxonomy easier to access for a variety of users. It enables users to check which activities are included in the EU Taxonomy (taxonomy-eligible activities), to which objectives they substantially contribute and what criteria they have to meet. Also note that the first EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act is currently under review by the European Parliament and the Council.

If you would like to keep up to date on our proposed solution and relevant SFDR resources  you can do so via our SFDR Reporting Solution page.

TCFD | GRESB is developing a TCFD reporting solution to help contextualize practices of the reported entity in the context of the TCFD. The data reported in the new resilience indicators of the main Assessments will be the backbone of these entity-specific TCFD Reports. The data provided for these indicators will be restructured to align with the 11 TCFD recommended disclosures and will leverage GRESB’s core capabilities of validation, transparent scoring, and peer benchmarking.

For more information about the indicators that are taken into account, please refer to the GRESB TCFD Reports Indicator Overview. You can access all existing GRESB-TCFD information, such as webinars, resources and articles, via GRESB’s TCFD page.  

Vacancies

GRESB is hiring! We’re looking for:

Upcoming events you can join us at

EMEA

Standardisation of ESG Reporting – Virtual Summit | July 1 

  • The summit will feature a roster of distinguished speakers discussing standardisation of ESG reporting, issues of over-standardisation and how in practice to achieve full reporting, including through climate competence in the boardroom, adequate and accurate data and significant auditing activity.

The UK Sustainability Infrastructure Policy & Investment Online Summit | September 14

  • This year’s edition of City & Financial Global’s well established summit on infrastructure policy and investment, which is being held virtually on 6th July, comes at a particularly interesting point in the market’s development. Aurelien Reynolds, GRESB Infrastructure Associate, will be speaking at this event.

Investor Relations, Marketing, and Communications Global Forum | September 9 – September 10 

  • Europe’s longest-running event focused on diversity in private equity will return to London once again in December. Established in 2014, the PEI Women in Private Equity Forum has driven forward the discussion around diversity in private equity.

Dutch National Sustainable Finance & Climate Risk Conference | September 16 – September 17 

  • A sustainable financial sector is essential to achieve the Paris climate goals. On the one hand, financial institutions contribute to a society in which Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) values are becoming increasingly important, by pursuing sustainable financial activities.  Erik Landry, Climate Change Specialist at GRESB, and Cathy Granneman, Associate Member Relations – Infrastructure, will be speaking at this event.

SuperReturn Global Infrastructure| September 21- September 23 | Intercontinental O2, London 

  • The event will provide insights into what the “new normal” might look like for the global infrastructure asset class. We will be sharing best practices, lessons learnt and practical advice on the best way forward for infrastructure businesses in the current environment. Rick Walters, Chief of Standards and Innovation at GRESB, will be speaking at this event

World Pension Summit 2021 | October 12 – October 14 

  • Pensions & Investments World Pension Summit is the global platform ‘for and by’ pension professionals and discusses the long-term components of vital ‘pension cross-roads’. Roxana Isaiu, GRESB’s Chief Sustainability Officer, will also be speaking at this event.

Asia Pacific 

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTORS FORUM: ASIA | September 7, Singapore and online

  • The 4th Infrastructure Investors Forum: Asia, hosted by AVCJ and Inframation, will be returning as a hybrid event in September, bringing together global and local GPs, LPs, and infrastructure players for an in-depth one-day discussion into the Southeast Asian infrastructure landscape and beyond.

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTORS FORUM – JAPAN | October 26, Conrad Tokyo and Online

  • The 3rd annual Infrastructure Investors Forum: Japan is the country’s most focused gathering of senior global fund managers and institutional investors and a key date on the fundraising calendar to discuss investment plans and future allocations.

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTORS FORUM: AUSTRALIA | October 5, The Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney and Online

  • The 5th annual Infrastructure Investors Forum Australia is the industry’s number one community gathering, attracting the leading infrastructure players in Australia, the biggest global fund managers, sovereign wealth funds and domestic and international pension funds and LPs.

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

Now on GRESB Insights

GRESB Insights provides case studies on ESG integration in real assets, data-driven analysis into how the industry is responding to the sustainability challenge and educational articles exploring topics covered in the GRESB Assessments. The topic for the month of May was “Regulatory Environment.”  You can access all GRESB Insights posts here.

GRESB is also opening up submissions for the month of July with the topic of “ESG Data Quality”. Feel free to make a submission via our landing page here. If you would like to explore next month’s Insights topic you can find out more on GRESB’s Insights page.

What GRESB is reading

Get the GRESB Newsletter