Welcome to our Fall newsletter featuring our clients' 2019 GRESB results and 2018 annual sustainability reports. Also, Verdani is presenting at these upcoming events: GRESB Results Event in San Francisco on September 26th and Greenbuild 2019 in Atlanta on November 20 & 21!
Verdani Clients Lead on the 2019 GRESB Assessment
The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) is one of the most important real estate industry benchmarks, representing over 22 trillion USD in institutional capital. In 2019, Verdani Partners submitted 29 GRESB assessments on behalf of our 11 national and international real estate portfolio clients. We are proud to support our clients in accomplishing significant milestones in their ESG performance.
Exceptional GRESB Results in 2019
1st rank for CommonWealth Partners U.S. Office Non-listed and Regional Sector Leader, scoring 25% above its peers, and performing within the top 2% of all GRESB real estate participants. Learn more
2nd rank for GID, U.S. Residential Multi-family Non-listed, scoring 30% above its peers, and performing within the top 6% of all GRESB real estate participants. Learn more
3rd rank for Jamestown Properties, U.S. Diversified Office/Retail Non-listed, and performing within the top 7% of all GRESB real estate participants
3rd rank for PGIM Real Estate, Americas Retail Non-listed
5 funds rank in top 3 in their peer group
6 funds rank in top 5 in their peer group
9 funds rank in top 10 in their peer group
3 funds scored over 90 points
9 funds scored over 80 points
8 funds or corporations increased their scores between 11% and 24% in one year from 2018 to 2019, including The Howard Hughes Corporation, whose score increased by 23% and Colony Capital, whose score increased by 24%
6 funds increased their scores between 30% and 80% since starting to work with Verdani
Green Stars
4 funds earned GRESB 5 Star Ratings
4 funds earned GRESB 4 Star Ratings
CommonWealth Partners earned Green Stars 6 years in a row, and the GRESB 5 Star Rating for the 3rd year in a row
Jamestown Properties maintained their GRESB 5 Star Rating
GID earned its first GRESB 5 Star Rating
Parkway earned its first GRESB 5 Star Rating
Resilience Module
1st rank for Jamestown Properties in their peer group and 2nd globally in their peer group
2nd rank for Parkway in their peer group
3rd rank for CommonWealth Partners and GID in their peer groups
Verdani Partners submitted over 12% of the total number of the participating global real estate funds
The 2019 global results from the GRESB Real Estate Assessment show an average increased score of 72, up from 68 in 2018, indicating that the real estate sector is cumulatively improving sustainability performance. A regional analysis of results show Oceania region real estate companies and funds lead the world in sustainability performance for a solid 9 years in a row with an average score of 81 in 2019 compared to the global average of 72. Both European and American real estate sectors nearly tied with Europe scoring 71 and America scoring 72. The North American GRESB participants represent the largest in dollar terms globally, whereas Europe leads in transparency.
Highlights of 2019 Real Estate Results:
Over 90% of GRESB participants have fully integrated multiple ESG objectives into their business strategy, with 97% of organizations employing a dedicated associate for sustainability
The majority of GRESB participants used external consultants (79%) in 2019, compared to less than 30% in 2012. Organizations typically engage a third-party for specialized services, such as external data management (74% used external systems).
Sustainability task forces are becoming common practice, with 98% of 2019 participants having one in place. Importantly, 62% of the task forces include a Board of Directors representative.
Community engagement and impact monitoring is improving, with 79% of GRESB participants monitoring community impact (8% increase over 2018) and 93% of participants have a community engagement program that includes sustainability-specific issues
Diversity monitoring of governance bodies and employees is increasing, with 91% reporting on diversity in the 2019 assessment. 77% of participants report on gender ratio, which serves as the most commonly tracked diversity metric across all regions.
Verdani is Speaking at the GRESB Results Event in San Francisco, September 26th!
Verdani Founder and President, Daniele Horton, will be presenting on Resilience Module Results at the 2019 GRESB Real Estate Results Event for North America on Thursday, September 26 in San Francisco. This event is hosted by GRESB Global Partner Measurabl and GRESB Member Boston Properties, supported by GRESB Premier Partner Verdani Partners Learn more about the event
Verdani Top GRESB Takeaways
As Premiere Partners reporting to GRESB since 2012, Verdani has continued to fine-tune our process for submitting assessments each year. Here are a few expert tips and tricks we learned this year to improve your data collection and reporting.
Engineering and Technical Services Best Practice Suggestions
To ensure data collection runs smoothly for your portfolio, send property managers quarterly reminders to update their projects and audits in Measurabl and monthly reminders to update utility data in ESPM/Measurabl
To help resolve Measurabl Usync issues, make sure to email site managers to add Measurabl’s email address to “Safe Senders List” on their email settings to avoid emails (including Usync issue reminders) from Measurabl going to junk/spam box
Make sure to brainstorm any additional items that can help increase GRESB scores. For example, ENERGY STAR labels include an IAQ assessment which counts as a Health and Wellness audit
For properties struggling to collect waste data from property teams, look into making contract adjustments to require waste vendors to provide waste data by end of year
If possible, call property teams directly to complete surveys over the phone, sometimes talking through responses sparks new ideas
Since 2014, Verdani Partners has worked with numerous clients to write and design over 30 annual sustainability, ESG and CSR reports. With content written for 9 reports and design completed for 7 reports in 2019, our ESG communications accomplishments continue to grow! Read about our clients' 2018 progress that led to their 2019 GRESB results in their annual reports below. To view all of our clients' reports, click here
CommonWealth Partners
We continued our close collaboration with CommonWealth Partners, developing content and design for the 2018 report as we have done since 2013. This report features:
Surpassed 2020 emissions reduction goal 3 years early with a 44.3% reduction in carbon emissions from their 2013 baseline
Joined over 590 other companies by setting a Science Based Target goal to reduce Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 50% by 2030
Expanded portfolio by acquiring two new properties: Pier 4 Boulevard (Pier 4) located in Boston, and 2099 Pennsylvania Avenue (2099 Penn) located in Washington D.C
We are proud of the progress our client GID has made and we were honored to complete the content and design for the report that showcases initiatives to improve GID’s ESG program. 2018 report highlights:
Signed on to the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion Pledge
Created Windsor’s California Wildfire Relief Fund to support victims of California wildfires
Installed two commercial solar systems in Massachusetts at Windsor at Cambridge Park and Maxwell’s Green with a total of 1,000MW of clean energy produced each year
Received ULI Greenprint award for most sustainability projects completed
Verdani crafted the content and design for Parkway's annual report. Key achievements for 2018:
Achieved 100% LEED certification for their entire Houston portfolio, with 16 of the 19 buildings receiving LEED Gold certifications
Recognized Phoenix Tower for the 20th consecutive year for achieving ENERGY STAR labels - the ENERGY STAR program to have achieved a label for every year of the program’s 20-year existence
Numerous social engagement initiatives, including opening a state-of-the-art childcare facility at Greenway Plaza
Ranked in the top 10 of the greenest publicly traded REITS in peer group for 2018
In 2018, our client GID, with the support of Blackbear Energy, completed two commercial solar systems in Massachusetts at Windsor at Cambridge Park and Windsor at Maxwell’s Green. The combined 824 kW arrays are expected to produce over 1,000 MW of clean energy each year, providing low-cost energy to the greater Boston Area. Learn more about GID's sustainability program (Photo: Cambridge Park)
Join Verdani at Greenbuild 2019
We are excited for the Greenbuild International Conference and Expo in Atlanta, November 19 – 22, 2019. Former U.S. President Barack Obama will be the conference’s keynote speaker, and the Verdani team is also presenting:
Turning Risk into Opportunity for Commercial Real Estate
Daniele Horton and Shubha Maheshwari
Session B07, November 20th at 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
The Intersection of Resilience and Sustainability
Jessica Loeper
Session E05, Thursday, November 21, 2019 at 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
