Calls for greater transparency on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance has led to more infrastructure funds and assets reporting to GRESB.
The global results for the 2018 GRESB Infrastructure Assessment, has revealed that the infrastructure assessment has reached “critical mass” with strong growth in participation – a 75% increase in assets and 17% for funds compared to last year.
The infrastructure assessment, which covered 75 funds and 280 assets recorded a 48% increase in funds participating in the infrastructure assessment with their underlying assets.
GRESB said infrastructure participants are increasingly reporting on their energy and greenhouse gas emissions and starting to set improvement targets.
This increased reporting is allowing GRESB to begin to set sector standards for intensity metrics that provide investors with comparable data they can use to monitor all their investments, GRESB said.
Rick Walters, a director of infrastructure at GRESB, said: “Now in its third year, we are delighted that the industry has endorsed GRESB Infrastructure by growing participation significantly.
”We are now well on the way to emulating the GRESB Real Estate Assessment and becoming the global standard.”
Walters said whilst the global infrastructure and sustainable development goal gaps are large and formidable, strong ESG performance is surely one of the keys to unlocking further infrastructure funding and bridging these gaps.
Sander Paul van Tongeren, a co-founder and managing director at GRESB, said: “Participation in GRESB has grown again in 2018 as investors seek standardised and validated ESG data to assess the sustainability of their real estate assets.
“This investor interest backed up with accurate performance benchmarking is empowering the spread of sustainable best practices across the world. We congratulate all participants in the 2018 GRESB Assessments. Their efforts are shaping the future of sustainability leadership for the sector.”
