ESG KnowHow

Environmental

Social and Corporate

Governance

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Sustainability & ESG Committee

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ESG in the News

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UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26)

The COP26 summit brought parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

UN Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG)

At the global level, the UNSDG serves as a high-level forum for joint policy formation and decision-making. It guides, supports, tracks and oversees the coordination of development operations in 162 countries and territories.

UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)

A UN led initiative, PRI works to understand the investment implications of ESG factors and support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The PRI puts forward six core principles, to which signatory companies must agree to commit themselves.

Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB)

GRESB is a mission-driven and industry-led organization that provides actionable and transparent environmental, social and governance (ESG) data to financial markets. Investors use GRESB's internationally-recognised industry benchmarks and analytical tools to assess the ESG performance of their individual assets and portfolios based on self-reported data, and meet increasingly demanding ESG reporting obligations.

Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

TCFD's main role is to address the information gap in financial markets around how climate-related risks are factored into a firm's strategies by stepping up requirements on the firm to provide TCFD-aligned disclosures on their climate-related risks and climate strategy. To achieve this objective, the TCFD developed a reporting framework based on 11 disclosure recommendations spanning four different areas: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

The SASB's mission is to develop and disseminate sustainability accounting standards that help public corporations disclose material, decision-useful information to investors. SASB developed sector-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for sustainability, which complement the CDSB Framework's principles on reporting environmental information in the mainstream corporate report.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

GRI exists to help organisations be transparent and take responsibility for their impacts to create a sustainable future by creating the global common language for organisations to report their impacts. This enables informed dialogue and decision making around those impacts.

CDSB Framework

The CDSB Framework for reporting environmental and social information is designed to help organisations prepare and present environmental and social information in mainstream reports for the benefit of investors. It allows investors to assess the relationship between specific environmental and social matters and the organisation's strategy, performance and prospects.

International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)

ISO has published more than 22,000 International Standards and related documents that represent globally recognized guidelines and frameworks based on international collaboration. Built around consensus, they provide a solid base on which innovation can thrive and are essential tools to help governments, industry and consumers contribute to the achievement of every one of the SDGs.

WELL Building Standard (WELL)

Projects pursuing WELL Certification can earn points based on performance outcomes for various policy, design and operational strategies and can achieve one of four certification levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. WELL is the global benchmark for health, as it is in use by over 4,000 projects in more than 60 countries, encompassing over half a billion square feet of real estate around the world.

International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)

The IFRS Foundation Trustees announced the creation of a new standard-setting board—ISSB—to help meet the demand of international investors for transparent and comparable reporting by companies onESG matters. The intention is for the ISSB to deliver a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability-related disclosure standards that provide investors and other capital market participants with information about companies' sustainability-related risks and opportunities to help them make informed decisions.

International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS)

The IFRS Foundation is a public interest organisation established to develop a single set of understandable, enforceable and globally accepted accounting and sustainability disclosure standards—IFRS Standards—and to promote and facilitate adoption of the standards.

Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)

CDP is a not-for-profit charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. The world’s economy looks to CDP as the gold standard of environmental reporting with the richest and most comprehensive dataset on corporate and city action.

Taskforce on Nature-Related Disclosures (TNFD)

The TNFD framework seeks to provide recommendations and guidance on nature-related risks and opportunities relevant to a wide range of market participants. TNFD's final reccomendations will launch in September 2023.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)

LEED is the most widely used green building rating system in the world, with four levels of certification. Available for virtually all building types, LEED provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings and the LEED certification is a globally recognised symbol of sustainability achievement and leadership.

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The Importance of ESG in the Real Assets Industry

Do you know that the real estate sector accounts for nearly 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions? Building operations account for 70% of these emissions, while construction produce the remaining 30%. To achieve global climate goals such as combating climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there is a need for real assets companies to set environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) targets.

So, what exactly is environmental, social, and governance (ESG), and why should real estate firms care? Consider themes such as low-carbon transition, diversity, and corporate compliance to better understand the definition of ESG. ESG regulation in Asia Pacific is rapidly developing, and it is an inevitable reality that developers, asset managers, investors, and other companies must face. This is accompanied by a pressing need to align with developing ESG standards to avoid falling behind, as many corporations are incorporating ESG considerations into their business decision-making processes.

Instead of viewing ESG as a necessary business cost to be incurred in order to comply with increasingly stringent regulatory measures and corporate competition, businesses can aggressively capitalise on climate opportunities. According to a recent Bloomberg Intelligence survey, global ESG assets are on track to exceed $53 trillion by 2025, accounting for more than a third of the projected total assets under management of $140.5 trillion.

As the region’s voice for sustainable investing and in light of the growing importance of ESG, APREA addresses our members’ needs through our core services to help them realise the full potential of ESG opportunities. We educate our stakeholders by sharing best practices and the latest research, actively engaging with them in ESG-related initiatives, and hosting events in collaboration with top industry experts to keep members up to date on the latest ESG news.

In essence, sustainability is a growing trend that should not be overlooked. Now more than ever, companies in the real assets industry must prioritise ESG to develop a resilient business that creates a long-term value for stakeholders.