Collaboration between the two global organisations is intended to promote their shared goals of advancing transparency and sustainability performance in the real estate industry.
The partnership brings together the organisations responsible for the BREEAM green building certification scheme and the GRESB sustainability benchmark for real estate portfolios. The aim is to help improve connections between asset- and portfolio-level assessments, streamlining the flow of information.
BRE’s BREEAM family of schemes is used in more than 60 countries, with several country-specific BREEAM schemes operated across Europe. BREEAM encourages integrative design, construction, and operation that promotes low carbon, low environmental impact buildings and communities. “BREEAM is a globally-recognised sustainability standard for buildings which provides proven economic, environmental and social benefits to property owners and occupiers,” said Gavin Dunn, director of BREEAM. “It currently provides a valuable route to achieving credits under the GRESB benchmark and our hope is to extend its reach under the partnership so more clients can realise the benefits on new and existing properties. Our collaboration demonstrates that GRESB recognizes all green building standards and schemes that have credibility and rigour behind them. We look forward to a fruitful relationship.”
GRESB assesses environmental, social, and governance attributes and performance of property funds around the world. In 2014, GRESB covered 637 funds representing US$2.1 trillion in property value. The GRESB benchmark addresses issues including corporate sustainability strategy, policies and objectives, environmental performance monitoring, and the use of high-quality voluntary rating schemes such as BREEAM. Close to 25% of GRESB participants have one or more BREEAM-certified assets in their portfolio.
“Commercial real estate investors are increasingly demanding information on their assets and portfolios to better understand immediate sustainability risks such as flooding and exposure to energy efficiency regulation, but also to allocate capital to sustainability-related investment opportunities, such as the repositioning of inefficient assets that might otherwise become obsolete,” said Nils Kok, CEO and co-founder of GRESB. “Our partnership with BRE helps both organisations to further deliver on the joint mission to advance sustainability in the built environment to enhance and protect shareholder value.”
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