As part of our progressive Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) strategy, we recently completed the 2020 GRESB Real Estate Assessment. This global benchmarking system now receives submissions from over 1200 property companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), funds, and developers spread between 64 countries.
The annual reporting period from April 1st to July 1st was extended by one month due to the impact of COVID this year, with results released in November.
A rigorous online assessment process that requires equal parts thought leadership and commitment to the cause of ESG by all candidate businesses, our debut submission falls into the Development Assessment category, covering the Management and Development components.
Management in GRESB covers our ESG strategy, policies and processes as well as risk management and stakeholder engagement, while Development focuses on how we have implemented ESG in the design, construction and renovation of our real estate projects.
Companies with operational projects under management on the other hand, use their building performance data to complete the GRESB Real Estate Benchmark encompassing Management and Performance components, with the latter analysing data around energy consumption, GHG emissions, water consumption and waste.
The launch of our highly anticipated 68 King William Street, London redevelopment project in 2021 will open the path to our additionally completing the GRESB Performance component too.