Global Partnership

Yardi + GRESB

By Joel Nelson on May 12, 2019 in Energy, News

Yardi has long supported the mission of Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), an Amsterdam-based limited private company, to improve real estate sustainability performance with environmental, social and governance benchmarking. The property management technology provider recently elevated its commitment by becoming one of just nine sustainability consultants and solution providers in GRESB’s Global Partner program.

In this role, Yardi helps GRESB participants complete sustainability assessments, manage ESG data and advance ESG performance. The company will also collaborate with the organization’s industry, media and research partners to share sustainability best practices across the property management industry.

GRESB works with the industry to define the global standard for sustainability performance in real assets, providing standardized and validated ESG data to the capital markets. More than 80 institutional investors, collectively representing more than $18 trillion in institutional capital, use GRESB data and analytical tools. In 2018 GRESB assessed 903 real estate funds and property companies, 75 infrastructure funds, 280 infrastructure assets and 25 debt portfolios.

“GRESB members can use Yardi’s energy solutions to drive actionable environmental, financial and operational insights into their real estate portfolios and engage more closely with the investor community. These capabilities benefit our clients around the world, and we are pleased to extend them to an even broader community of real estate portfolio managers,” said Akshai Rao, vice president of energy and procurement for Yardi.

A GRESB evaluation measures sustainability performance indicators including energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and waste. A multi-layer validation process produces high-quality data that investors and participants can use in their investment and decision-making processes.

“Real estate companies that establish and track a full range of ESG metrics achieve multiple tangible business outcomes for shareholders,” GRESB says on its website.

In one recent project, S&P Dow Jones Indices, the world’s leading index provider, used GRESB data to launch four indices that are designed to represent real estate companies with strong sustainability performance. The new indices are designed to provide high-quality and efficient tools for integrating ESG risks into investment strategies that real estate investors have historically lacked.

“More and more investors are integrating ESG risks into their investment process. Given the large size and specialized nature of real estate assets, the investment community has demanded sophisticated tools to more accurately identify real estate companies that own more sustainable properties and integrate this information seamlessly into their investment process,” Michael Orzano, a senior director for S&P Dow Jones, and Sander Paul van Tongeren, GRESB’s managing director and co-founder, said in a statement.

GRESB is also working with a Zurich-based infrastructure investment firm to remedy the current lack of internationally accepted standards for ESG due diligence of infrastructure assets.

The 2019 ESG reporting season is underway. Visit the GRESB website to learn how to benchmark asset performance.