#gresb

The Center for Active Design announces a global partnership with GRESB

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.75″ background_layout=”light” border_style=”solid”] In response to growing demand for healthy buildings and related impact data, leading REITs and real estate companies use Fitwel across their real estate portfolios. New York, NY, Monday, September 18, 2017— The Center for Active Design (CfAD)…

Kilroy Realty’s Columbia Square office buildings earn two LEED Gold certifications

Kilroy Realty Corporation (NYSE: KRC) announced in August that 469,000 square feet of the office component of the Columbia Square mixed-use development project in Hollywood have earned LEED Gold certifications under the Core & Shell rating system created by the US Green Building Council. The office component is comprised of historic and new office buildings that are leased to several well-known…

Taylor Sims, San Diego, CA, September 7, 2016

The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) has officially announced scores for the 2016 Reporting Season. Verdani Partners’ clients have continued to effectively implement their sustainability programs and prove themselves as industry leaders. We are honored to work with such progressive firms and proud of all they have accomplished.

This year, 759 real estate companies and funds reported to GRESB, representing more than 66,000 assets, 63 countries, and $2.8 trillion. This year’s data reflects the fact that GRESB is gaining traction rapidly among stakeholders. Overall, significantly more funds are reporting and improving across all aspects of ESG performance. With increased participation and more competition, Verdani Partners is thrilled to announce our clients results for their continued commitment in staying ahead of the market.

“Our team is very proud of CommonWealth Partners, Clarion Partners, Parkway Properties, Colony Capital, and Jamestown for their achievements this year. Five of our clients ranked within the top five of their respective sectors, two within the top ten, and five received GRESB’s “Green Star” for their industry leadership. Our clients’ forward thinking management and talented property teams facilitate wide-spread implementation of our ESG programs and initiatives. As sustainability gradually becomes common-practice, staying ahead of competition is becoming more and more challenging. This year’s GRESB participation and results is a reminder that we need to continue to do even more by increasing investor value, tenant demand, and operational savings while supporting sustainable organizations and creating healthier places to live and work,” said Daniele Horton, Founder and President of Verdani Partners.

COMMONWEALTH PARTNERS

Today, CommonWealth Partners (CWP) was recognized for their continued leadership and commitment to sustainability. CommonWealth Partners has reported to GRESB for three consecutive years and continued to improve their score annually despite increased participation in one of GRESB’s most competitive sectors. CWP ranked 2nd among privately held office funds in the United States. In addition, CWP was awarded a “Green Star”, the highest level of recognition from GRESB, for the third year in a row. CWP’s success is a result of their exceptional management and seamless integration of sustainability into their core business model. Read CommonWealth Partners’ 2015 Sustainability Report here. 

Jessica Loeper, Senior Sustainability Manager for CommonWealth Partners states, “I am proud of our team and what we have accomplished to improve overall building performance across the portfolio and achieve 2nd place in the office non-listed sector for GRESB.”  By establishing a solid Environmental Management System has helped us stick to the goals we have set for ourselves and all our hard work is paying off!”

"We are honored to receive second place among our peers and proud to be ranked one of the nation's highest performers in sustainability," said Kirsten Quezambra, Vice President of CommonWealth Partners. "By integrating sustainability into our core business model, we consistently achieve and exceed our sustainability goals. We will work closely with our teams and tenants across our portfolio to improve our sustainability programs and continue the tradition of innovation that has made us an industry leader in sustainability."

CLARION PARTNERS

For three years in a row, Clarion Partners has proven their continued dedication to corporate responsibility by reporting for three funds encompassing diversified, multifamily, and industrial sectors. With $42.3 billion in total assets under management, Clarion has used their influential platform to set the bar high among their peers. This year, their funds ranked 2nd, 7th, and 5th in their respective sectors in addition to being recognized as a top quartile performer for the second year in a row.    

“We are proud to have received Green Stars for all three Clarion funds that participate in the GRESB assessment as well as to have achieved performance and peer ranking improvements, particularly in the competitive diversified fund category,” said Sara Schoen, Director of Sustainability for Clarion Partners.

PARKWAY PROPERTIES

Parkway Properties has improved their GRESB ranking for the fourth consecutive year ranking 3rd among publicly-traded REITS in the United States. Since 2014, GRESB has awarded Parkway Properties annually with a “Green Star” as a leader in environmental, social, and governance performance indicators. Parkway Properties’ sustainability program has had wide-spread implementation across their portfolio including 99% of their buildings benchmarked on ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager and 17 LEED certifications since 2014. Their investments have paid off, as GRESB continues to acknowledge their progress. Read Parkway Properties’ 2015 Annual Sustainability Report here. 

“I'm very proud of Parkway's continuous improvements across all sustainability metrics over the past three years,” says Jeff Dunbar, Director of Sustainability for Parkway Properties, “It is immensely gratifying to see those improvements reflected in Parkway's continued rise in the GRESB rankings from 8th place to 5th place to 3rd place among its peers.”

COLONY CAPITAL

In 2015, Colony Capital made the decision to invest in their ESG program. In one year, they rolled out 21 corporate policies, designed an EMS program, published their first annual sustainability report, and reported for both a real estate and debt fund, among other initiatives. With over $60 billion of total capital, Colony Capital has tremendous potential to lower their carbon footprint and impact the industry in a positive way. Today, GRESB ranked Colony’s funds as 2nd and 9th in global debt and global diversified sectors. Needless to say, Colony Capital is on the right track to becoming an industry leader in no time. Read Colony Capital’s first Corporate Responsibility Report here. 

“I am thrilled with Colony Capital’s GRESB results and what our team has accomplished in the very first year of reporting. This report gives us great validation for the success of our sustainability program and is a testament to all the hard work in implementing it,” says Shubha Mohunta, Senior Sustainability Manager for Colony Capital.

“We are very pleased with these results in our first year participating in GRESB.  ESG principles are an important part of Colony’s business and earning these designations is validating that our hard work is paying off,” said Ryan McManus, Senior Vice President at Colony Capital. 

JAMESTOWN

Since reporting initially in 2014, Jamestown has steadily established their presence in the diversified sector climbing to 4th in 2016 in North America. Aside from ranking well, Jamestown improved their GRESB score by 9 points, due to continued effort to implement their sustainability programs across their portfolio. GRESB also recognized Jamestown as a “Green Star” for the third consecutive year, as a consistent top quartile performer. With a management team committed to sustainability, Jamestown will continue strengthening its sustainability program in coming years.

“I am honored to work with the Jamestown team as we continue to improve their ESG programs, and we are proud of the progress we have made together! Their commitment to improving their sustainability program is reflected in the great results they achieved this year and the improvement in their GRESB score for the second consecutive year,” said Mariana Young, Sustainability Manager for Jamestown. 

"We are proud to see our GRESB results increase each year, and to have maintained our Green Star status since 2014 as participation in the survey has increased. GRESB not only serves as a way to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability to our investors, but also functions as a best in class roadmap for refinements and improvement over time," said Matt Bronfman, CEO of Jamestown.

ABOUT GRESB

GRESB is an industry-driven organization committed to assessing the sustainability performance of real estate portfolios (public, private, and direct) around the globe. More than 100 investor members representing nearly US $9 trillion in assets under management use GRESB results to optimize the risk-return profile of their real estate investments. The dynamic benchmark is used by institutional investors to engage with their investments with the aim to improve the sustainability performance of their investment portfolio, and the global property sector at large.

WHY PARTICIPATE IN GRESB?

GRESB is widely recognized as the leading global ESG data provider for real assets.

GRESB’s mission is to enhance and protect shareholder value by evaluating and improving the sustainability performance of real assets.

GRESB has developed its benchmarking framework to give real asset investors tools to monitor, manage and engage with investment managers.

Benchmarking sustainability performance helps generate and strengthen the market forces needed to bring environmental, social and governance issues to the forefront of business decision-making. By participating in GRESB’s annual assessments, companies and funds are able to better manage portfolios, funds and assets in the face of more volatile energy prices, stricter legislation to combat climate change, increased energy efficiency requirements and changing preferences of corporate tenants.

Please note that the deadline to register and grandfather in the less stringent LEED EBOM v. 2009 is on October, 31st 2016. Contact the Verdani experts at [email protected] if you need help with registration, feasibility (GAP) analysis, budget and certification. 

Visit USGBC for more information about the extended deadline.

NAREIT VIDEO INTERVIEW ABOUT PARKWAY’S SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMS

  1. Can you talk about some of the key reporting and ESG initiatives underway at Parkway and how these initiatives are being perceived by your investors?

o REPORTING: At Parkway, we have implemented a holistic approach for our reporting initiatives. We continue to report to the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark, Carbon Disclosure Project, participate on the Federal Better Buildings Challenge and continue to share our progress publicly on our annual GRI based reports.

o GRESB RANKING: We have reported to GRESB for 3 consecutive years, and we have consistently improved our ranking each year, an achievement that has been widely noticed by investors. Last year we ranked as the 5th highest environmental performer among our US Office Peer group and maintained our “Green Star” rating recognizing Parkway as a top quartile performer in all categories.

o DATA TRACKING/WASTE: We plan to maintain our leadership and stay ahead of upcoming regulations. In the past years, we have successfully benchmarked and automated our energy and water data, rolled out and implemented over 21 policies and procedures portfolio wide, and continued the completion of our LEED EBOM Volume program. We are now looking to deepen our efforts for waste tracking and recycling programs, an area that the industry as a whole has struggled with. We are excited that Energy Star will enable waste tracking on Energy Star Portfolio manager in 2016 which should help improve waste tracking for the industry as a whole.

o RESILIENCE: As climate change worsens, our risk management programs are becoming more important than ever. We have implemented Climate Change and Resiliency Policies that not only map out potential threats in our markets but also outline detailed plans and guidance for disaster prevention in case any buildings are affected by weather or other climate change related events.

o GOVERNANCE: Our executive team has taken a long-term strategic view of sustainability and invested heavily in our ESG programs with the belief it drives returns on capital, creates shareholder value, and mitigates risk while showing environmental stewardship. Investors and tenants are creating a greater push for more energy and water efficiency investments, climate change preparedness, and workplace health safety and productivity. It’s critical for any REITS that want to remain competitive, to stay ahead of these trends.

2. What are some of the highlights, challenges and success stories that you can share about the implementation of Parkway’s portfolio wide sustainability program?

o LEED VOLUME PROGRAM: Parkway’s greatest success story also serves as one of our greatest current challenges, completing Parkway’s LEED EBOM Volume Program. In 2014, we developed the program to take 25 buildings through LEED certification. Thus far, we have submitted 11 buildings and plan to submit many additional buildings in 2016. These are aggressive targets and there is an immense amount of work to be done in order to reach our goals. One of the challenges we are facing is the level of uniformity that is required to make a volume program efficient. Because every building is so different but we continue to push ahead and we are extremely proud of the progress we have made so far. Currently, 34% of our portfolio is LEED certified and 96.4% is benchmarked on Energy Star.

o CERTIFICATION TRENDS: Looking forward, we are exploring different avenues to streamline our certificationprocesses. We are currently investigating the LEED Dynamic Plaque as a more streamlined and cost effective, potential path to maintain our LEED Recertifications. We are also looking into a new certification program that was recently launched for buildings that don’t currently qualify for LEED Certification.

o EFFICIENCY INVESTENTS: In addition, Parkway is committed to continue making investments on energy efficiency projects. In 2014, Parkway invested almost $6.2 million in energy and water saving projects portfolio-wide. These projects resulted in more than $425,000 of annual operating expense savings. If these operating expense savings flow directly to NOI, savings will increase our buildings’ value by more than $6.5 million dollars using a 6.5% cap rate. In 2015, we completed several energy audits that enabled us to identify many additional efficiency investment opportunities. We plan to continue to investigate additional opportunities for efficiency investments and track the impact of these projects on our portfolio.

3. How has Parkway addressed stakeholder and tenant engagement with its sustainability initiatives?

o TENANT ENGAGEMENT: Parkway has taken extensive measures to remain engaged with our tenants and stakeholders and have had tremendous success. We host annual tenant engagement events such as Earth Hour, Earth Day, and an E-Waste Drive. In addition, we have implemented several programs to engage our stakeholders including tenant memos, signage programs, social media, annual reports, and sustainability newsletters.

o HEALTH & IAQ: As tenants become more sophisticated they are increasingly demanding sustainable buildings with a focus on indoor air quality, health, productivity, and lower operating expenses. In 2015, we developed a new Wealth and Well-being Policy that in addition to our Indoor Air Quality Policies, Green Cleaning Program, and IAQ Audits is making our Indoor Air Quality and health focused initiatives even stronger. As time goes on, tenants continue to see the value in having a healthier workplace, and Parkway plans on staying ahead of tenant demand in this and many fronts.

o PROPERTY TEAMS ENGAGEMENT/ANNUAL AWARDS: When it comes to engaging our Property Teams and building Engineers, we have incentivized and further engaged them to continue to focus on sustainability with several great initiatives including an annual awards program that recognizes our most energy and water efficient buildings as well as the most improved ones. Our program has been very successful and we are excited to have it featured on the Federal Better Buildings Challenge website later this year.

NAREIT / GRESB Update Presented by: Chris Pyke

Written by: Daniele Horton and Katie Freeze

 Health and Well-being: GRESB real estate assessment

New questions to recognize ongoing leadership by real estate companies and funds 

Develop and evaluate new strategies to establish peer groups and understand performance indicators

A voluntary, not scored supplement

Open for participation April 1, 2016

GRESB has created new tools for developers, accessible to “development-only” participants.

Green Bonds is a tool implemented by GRESB to help participants identify eligible green project criteria. Green Bonds principles state that green projects should “provide clear environmentally suitable benefits, which, where feasible, will be quantified or assessed by the issuer”. In the case of green building, the   project may certify to a rigorous green building rating system such as LEED, Green Star, BREEAM, or a similar program to qualify. 

Property-Level Sustainability Risks Reviewed:

Risks not typically addressed in standard third-party reports include Green Building Certification, Health and Safety, Flexibility for Different Use, Energy Consumption and Management, Renewable Energy Use, Water Use, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Climate Change, Socioeconomic Issues and Waste Management.