What is GRESB and all this attention on benchmarking?

According to the GRESB website, “In 2009 three large pension funds joined forces to better understand their exposure to risks related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in their global portfolios of investments in property companies and private equity real estate funds… Five years later, sustainability reporting has become standard practice for a large part of the world’s property companies and fund managers. In consultation with the real estate industry, GRESB has further developed the set of metrics that constitute the most important sustainability issues for its more than 130 members, of which 42 are pension funds and their fiduciaries, jointly representing some USD 8.8 trillion in assets under management.” In 2014, “637 listed property companies and private equity real estate funds submitted data, covering 56,000 buildings (excluding single-family residential assets) with an aggregate value of USD 2.1 trillion.”  Read More