EVORA Needs More Excellent People to Join Its Growing Team!

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As EVORA’s exciting phase of growth continues, we are on the lookout for more outstanding candidates to come and join our close-knit team of dedicated professionals.

Energy Consultant

We only launched our new technical engineering division, EVORA EDGE, a few weeks ago, but Andrew and Neil are already so busy with new client work that we are recruiting for an Energy Consultant to support them. The reception to EVORA EDGE has been phenomenal: the unique skills that Andrew and Neil possess are clearly in high demand and they are enabling us to deliver client work that many of our competitors cannot (stay tuned to our blog for more news on this soon). This vacancy therefore represents an excellent opportunity to join an exciting and growing area of the business.

This role will be based in our Bolton office. Click here for full job details and to find out how to apply.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Energy Consultant vacancy for @evoraglobal based in its Bolton office. Apply today! #jobs #energy” quote=”EVORA is recruiting for an Energy Consultant for its Bolton office. Apply today!”]

Business Development Manager

Sorry, this position has now been filled!

This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for an excellent salesperson who is looking for the next step in their career to join a small but rapidly growing business. You will be following-up on the hot leads generated by our Marketing Team to sell our expert consultancy services and our visionary sustainability management software, SIERA. The successful candidate will go on to manage a team of Junior Business Development Associates and will lead on our sales strategy, reporting directly to the Marketing Director to ensure overall alignment of business strategy. This opportunity is only suitable for the most ambitious, proactive and diligent salesperson who is looking to advance his or her career. If that sounds like you, please apply today.

This role will be based in our Head Office in London. Click here for full job details and to find out how to apply.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Salesperson vacancy for @evoraglobal based in its London office. Apply today! #jobs #London” quote=”EVORA is recruiting for a Business Development Manager for its Head Office in London. Apply today!”]

Office Administrator

Sorry, this position has now been filled!

Last but by no means least, we need a truly outstanding Office Administrator to come and join the team in our Head Office. This incredibly varied, hands-on role is only suitable for someone with experience of simultaneously managing multiple administrative tasks in a busy office environment. You will be the go-to person for a team of 17 (soon to be 20!) and no two days will be the same. This opportunity is for you if you have office administration experience and you are looking for an exciting new challenge as part of a close-knit team in a growing business. With a front-of-house side to the role, it is perfect for a warm and friendly person with excellent people skills and a superb telephone manner.

This role will be based in our Head Office in London. Click here for full job details and to find out how to apply.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Office Administrator vacancy for @evoraglobal based in its London office. Apply today! #jobs #London” quote=”EVORA is recruiting for an Office Administrator for its Head Office in London. Apply today!”]

A note to all serious applicants!

Due to the incredibly high number of applications we receive, we cannot reply to each individually.

To stand the best chance of your application being reviewed, please make sure you:

  • first and foremost meet all the requirements listed on the job advert
  • send an up-to-date CV that is eye catching and well formatted
  • send a proper, personalised covering letter, which supports your CV and further demonstrates your suitability for the role and outlines why you want to work at EVORA

If you do those three things, you stand a far greater chance of catching our attention and making our shortlist of suitable candidates. Good luck!

The Role of Smart Metering in Slaying the Blackout Monster

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Though the forecast for this week is mild, the current winter has seen the cold bite, and cold weather usually means more demand on power.

You may recall doom mongering headlines over the past few years predicting power blackouts as the National Grid would struggle to meet demand over the winter months. However, so far no such episodes have occurred. Steve Holliday, the former head of the National Grid, appeared on BBC News on Monday morning to defend the National Grid and endorse the Government’s latest capacity auctions for power generation to ensure supply.

Mr Holliday also pointed to several factors enabling the Grid to provide an efficient capacity, including Smart metering. This follows his comments in the Telegraph last year that metering for businesses will contribute four-fifths of the potential energy savings from smart control technology.

EVORA recognises the important role smart metering already plays in reducing energy consumption. As well as providing strategic advice in the provision of smart metering technology in buildings, EVORA has developed a Monitoring and Targeting (M&T) feature in SIERA, its sustainability management software, to help businesses visualise, be notified by, and act upon smart meter data.  This software takes in raw half-hourly data from source meters and presents practical graphical analysis to the end user supported by alerts and custom overlays, giving clear insight to reduce energy wastage.

The process of acquiring data and creating insightful and meaningful reporting is at the centre of our strategy for SIERA. The impact of Big Data and how EVORA is using it to deliver performance and value to businesses is set out in my last blog post.

The use of technology in energy consumption has never been greater as all parts of the energy supply chain, from power generators and the National Grid to consumers rely more and more on software and the Internet of Things to create an accurate picture of consumption that they can act upon. We see SIERA as part of this effort and look to work with our clients to constantly improve its capabilities in this field.

We are also pleased to hear that the lights aren’t going to go out… well, so we’ve been told.

To learn more about SIERA, or to request a demo, please contact us today.

Commercial Real Estate Sustainability in 2017: Seven Likely Highlights

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I think most will agree that 2016 has been year of surprises and uncertainties in many arenas. In spite of this, we’ve seen some positive moves in many aspects of the world of commercial real estate sustainability and 2017 could shape up to be an equally encouraging one. I wanted to share EVORA’s thoughts on what we think the highlights of the next 12 months could be.

1. EU and US Political Surprises

The question is will the progress of recent years to a greener and more energy efficient real estate sector be halted or even reversed following Britain’s vote to leave the EU and the US electing Trump? However, the reality is that for the next 5-10 years there could be very little regulatory change, certainly in Europe. Let’s not forget the global context; the UK and other members of the EU are all also members of the International Energy Agency (IEA). As such all are committed to implementing IEA guidelines which is a good example of why the UK as a whole, and more specifically the real estate sector, would still be required to act on climate change whether part of the EU or not.

Aside from Brexit we’ve already been anticipating some ‘rationalisation’ of the UK energy legislative landscape i.e. the review of how its main elements work together; Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), Climate Change Levy (CCL), the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) and mandatory GHG reporting etc.

For the time being, companies will still need to comply with existing legislation and instruments such as ESOS (and MEES – see No. 3, below) should surely, at the very least, only promote the business case for investment in energy efficiency rather than hinder it. Although broader economic performance has not been as bad as predicted since the Brexit vote, the continued uncertainty will be stifling company decision making and the sooner the UK government can provide clarity the better.

2. The Health & Wellbeing Agenda

Recent months have been awash with this topic and I would like to think that, despite staff engagement within many organisations still having some way to go, there need be no more debate that addressing health and wellbeing has a demonstrable business case. There are some great case studies coming out of the retail and commercial office sectors but can we expect 2017 to be the year in which there will be more action? EVORA expects the profile to continue to be increased but perhaps firm action (and to a certain extent, interest) could be limited to major developers and larger investment companies. That said, rapid acceleration of relatively inexpensive monitoring technologies should enable ease of access to valuable data (such as indoor air quality) to organisations of all sizes. This could lead to occupiers taking the initiative on health and wellbeing conversations with their landlords. It will also be interesting to follow the uptake of and insights provided by GRESB’s Health & Wellbeing Assessment; 2016 already saw nearly 25% of the entities that reported to the GRESB Real Estate Assessment voluntarily report to the Health & wellbeing module.

3. EPCs

With the 2018 Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) deadline looming, we could see potential high profile litigation relating to historically incorrect EPC assessments. With not much more than a year to go, 2017 should see a lot of activity in this space with a push to understand and address EPC risks. This is something EVORA have recognised the need for expertise in having recently launched EVORA EDGE, our technical engineering division.

4. Science Based Targets

Following the first theme regarding the global context to action on climate change, 2016 saw an increase in the commercial real estate sector’s interest in science based targets (SBTs). One of our Junior Consultants, Kim Diep, wrote two blogs on this providing considerations for the real estate sector. EVORA anticipates that SBTs will continue to gain interest amongst the REITs and Institutional Investors that consider themselves at the forefront of carbon reduction target setting. This will no doubt be a topic on the minds of those following the ongoing response to the COP21 outcomes as a means of aligning the carbon reduction strategies for real estate to the requirements of broader climate policy.

5. Increasing Momentum in Voluntary Reporting

2016 saw a 30% increase in the number of participants in GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) in two years, with Europe participants alone comprising $750 bn in total asset value. EVORA was certainly kept busy managing the process of more than 40 submissions for our participating clients. Indeed, the uptake of GRESB in the real estate sector is a fairly good barometer of interest. Investors are asking more and more about ESG and GRESB appears to be an increasingly popular means of engaging in the topic with their fund and asset managers. GRESB has recently released the guidance for the 2017 survey; whilst it’s important that participants engage with GRESB to shape the methodologies to ensure scoring is reflective of market conditions, it will be good news to the ears of those involved with administering submissions that the Real Estate Assessment is being kept stable. EVORA expects increased uptake but also even more focus on score improvement.

Stay tuned to our newsletters for information on the release of our upcoming GRESB eBook and our GRESB Masterclass in March.

6. Focus on Data Accuracy

With more and more data being collected and analysed to inform real estate decision making, accuracy is going to be ever more important. We’ve already highlighted this in respect of EPCs but also GRESB as an example where accuracy of information will be key to implementing improvements and where there is a trend increasingly toward the need for investment grade data. These are merely two examples against a background of emerging ‘big data’ trends which are increasingly pertinent in the real estate sector. Our Technical Architect, Alex Graham, blogged about this very topic in 2016; he highlighted how big data will continue to shape our approach to our software SIERA, for example, to enable our clients to get the insights and information they need to improve their sustainability efforts.

7. Continued Fall in Cost of Low Carbon Tech

Despite the recent backtracking from the Government on the fiscal incentives for low carbon technologies, EVORA would argue that the shortfall in policy could be replaced by market forces which seek similar objectives to ensure a low carbon, energy efficient, economically viable and productive real estate sector. Therefore, despite the seemingly persistent barriers, we expect to see a continued uptake and fall in cost of low carbon technologies. Getting the strategic balance between decarbonisation of energy supplies/generation and energy efficiency will continue to be important.

If you have any questions or if you would like more information on any of the topics covered in this blog post, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our experts today.

The 2017 GRESB Reporting Cycle and Five Tips for GRESB Survey Submission Success!

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On your marks, get set… GRESB!

According to the time stamp on Tuesday’s Newsletter from GRESB, 01:51pm marked the starting gun for the GRESB 2017 reporting cycle. The race is on…!

Within the Newsletter, GRESB provided a link to the ‘pre-release’ of their Real Estate and Developer Assessment surveys. Review of the pre-release offers early insight into changes to the 2017 survey. Understanding the changes may unveil potential impacts on your organisation’s ability to maintain/improve its GRESB score and illuminate possible logistical challenges regarding gathering the necessary evidence and data in order to complete the survey.

I have written this blog to help you unpick these changes and explore the potential impacts on your business. Loosely, the contents of this blog boil-down as follows:

  • very brief reminder of the purpose and importance of GRESB and key dates for your 2017 diary
  • outline of the key changes for the 2017 survey and reflections on the impact of these changes
  • some humble tips on how to achieve GRESB and, more generally, ESG success.

[clickToTweet tweet=”The @GRESB 2017 reporting cycle. The race is on…!” quote=”The GRESB 2017 reporting cycle. The race is on…!”]

What is GRESB?

In their own words, GRESB (or Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) is “…an investor-driven organization that is transforming the way we assess the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of real assets globally, including real estate portfolios and infrastructure assets.”

With over 250 investor members and having assessed more than 1,100 property entities, GRESB continues to dominate the ESG rating industry for commercial real estate, globally.

Key dates for your calendar:

  • March 1, 2017 – Release of
    • Assessment Reference Guide
    • Health & Well-being Module and Reference Guide
  • April 1, 2017 – GRESB Portal opens
  • June 1, 2017 – Response Check request deadline
  • July 1, 2017 – Assessment deadline
  • September 6, 2017 – Results day

[clickToTweet tweet=”Here are 5 key @GRESB dates for your calendar…” quote=”Here are 5 key GRESB dates for your calendar…”]

Key changes identified in the ‘pre-release’

Overall, the changes this year are relatively minor and thus if you are familiar with the GRESB format I think it would be justified for you to breathe a sigh of relief at this point. That said, it is important to bear in mind that larger changes are pipped for 2018, which GRESB Managing Director Sander Paul van Tongeren confirmed at our GRESB event in November 2016.

Scoring and weighting changes

Perhaps the most significant change is the increased emphasis on completing technical building assessments covering a broader range of sustainability impacts (Q16). ‘Piloted’ in the 2016 survey, from 2017 technical building assessments of impacts other than energy will be scored for the first time. This includes:

  • water (up to 1.5 points)
  • waste (up to 0.5 points)
  • health and wellbeing (up to 0.5 points)

Critically, the increased emphasis on assessment of improvement opportunities has been balanced by slightly reducing points available for actual implementation of efficiency measures for energy (Q17) and water (Q18).

We at EVORA have mixed feelings about this particular change. On the one hand, we worry when attention is taken away from making real and tangible interventions to improve asset sustainability performance. As such, we speculate as to whether the points should have been ‘balanced’ through reductions in points associated with a different section of the survey.

On the other hand, we do welcome the increased emphasis on other sustainability issues beyond energy. Energy has rightly been the emphasis of action for many organisations to date as it typically contributes the greatest environmental impact and is attributed with the highest operational cost of buildings, after security and M&E. However, water, waste and health and wellbeing matter as well and also present real opportunities for operational improvements that can benefit tenants, asset owners and investors. This is something EVORA strongly supports and on which we have a strong track record of advising clients. For example, we have competed more than 300 sustainability audits over the last six years.

Increases in reporting requirements

A small number of questions have been bolstered in order to increase the robustness of their assessment.

  • Increase in data granularity: Portfolio coverage for energy (Q17), water (Q18) and waste (Q19) technical building assessments must now be reported as a precise percentage of the whole portfolio. Previously, drop-downs were provided at 25% increments (e.g. >0 – <25%, ≥25 – <50%).
  • More supporting evidence: Monitoring property/asset managers’ compliance the sustainability-specific requirements (Q41.1) must now include upload of supporting evidence.

Reduction in the reporting burden

Several questions have been streamlined, generally on the basis that they will make the survey more straightforward and / or less resource intensive to complete, without compromising data and therefore rating quality. For example, a number of open text boxes and evidence upload requirements have been reduced or removed.

As long as the robustness of the assessment is preserved, we welcome improvements in the efficiency of GRESB’s reporting requirements.

Five Tips for GRESB Survey Submission Success!

As I write this blog, there are about 163 days left until the 2017 deadline.

In some respects this feels like a long time, however – and you will know this if you have completed an investor survey of this nature before – it is easy to underestimate the importance of planning when it comes to GRESB delivery.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Do NOT underestimate the importance of planning when it comes to @GRESB delivery!” quote=”Don’t underestimate the importance of planning when it comes to GRESB delivery!”]

As you look to start plotting out your programme, we recommend that you consider the following:

  1. Start early.
  2. Remind yourself what went well and less well last year – consider both the process and individual question responses.
  3. Engagement and education of people that will support you in delivering GRESB. Keep in regular touch with these people, particularly if they will be providing you with information.
  4. Data automation – our propriety software, SIERA, delivered 41 GRESB submissions in 2016, helping clients to seamlessly acquire and report data. Why not take a look at the following blog post: GRESB Data Automation: Ensuring Seamless Does Not Result in Senseless.
  5. Seek external support / advice. EVORA will be holding a masterclass on responding to GRESB, in March 2017. Keep a look out for this in our e-newsletters and be sure to sign up early.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Here are Five Tips for @GRESB Survey Submission Success!” quote=”Here are Five Tips for GRESB Survey Submission Success!”]

Tips for ESG management and performance success

For more general advice on how to implement practical and tailored sustainability solutions, please refer to the following blog post: Environmental Management Systems: Plan-Do-Check-Act…Deliver?

EVORA is a GRESB Premier PartnerAbout Us

Why firms choose us for GRESB survey submission support

EVORA is an independent, pan-European sustainability consultancy and software provider, specialising in (but not limited to) the commercial real estate sector. We are a GRESB Premier Partner Consultancy.

We have helped a large number of funds complete the GRESB survey, including Schroder Real Estate, AEW and Moorfield. Our experience and relationship with the GRESB team has enabled us to provide comprehensive client support – and in all cases improved results.

We can work with you to complete the submission and understand your scoring, as well as develop a sustainability plan that will improve your future GRESB performance and align with your organisation’s key environmental objectives.

For more information, please sign up to our newsletter and remember to look out for our upcoming GRESB Masterclass!

Giving Our Clients The EDGE With Our New Technical Engineering Division

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I hope you are having a very happy new year, which will also bring you good health and prosperity. It has been three months since my last update bringing the exciting news of our rebrand to EVORA, recognising our own evolution, as well as that of the real estate industry, being transformed by the impact of sustainability.

A lot can happen in three months, as we experienced in 2016 with some pretty groundbreaking changes around the world. So, not to be outdone, we have some pretty groundbreaking news of our own with the launch of EVORA EDGE, our new technical engineering division.

[clickToTweet tweet=”CRE sustainability consultancy @evoraglobal launches EVORA EDGE – new technical engineering division” quote=”CRE sustainability consultancy, EVORA, launches EVORA EDGE – its new technical engineering division.”]

Technical Engineering Solutions for the Built Environment

EVORA EDGE, being an acronym for Energy, Design, Generation and Engineering, further positions EVORA as a leading full service provider to meet the ever-evolving needs of the commercial real estate sector. EVORA EDGE will complement our current energy and M&E consulting provision with a much more comprehensive breadth and depth of engineering solutions.

I am also delighted to announce that Andrew Cooper, an expert in asset and energy management, and Neil Dady, a senior building services engineer, have merged their respective businesses with EVORA to head up EVORA EDGE. Both Andrew and Neil have joined as Directors and bring a wealth of knowledge and practical experience.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Andrew Cooper & Neil Dady join @evoraglobal as Directors of its new technical engineering division.” quote=”Andrew Cooper & Neil Dady join EVORA as Directors of its new technical engineering division, EVORA EDGE.”]

EVORA EDGE will not only significantly strengthen our existing technical offering, which includes the delivery of Part L of Building Regulations, energy audits, EPC work and MEES (Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards) compliance, but will also provide us with a wealth of new services, including:

  • Building services specification and management
  • Compliance with the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations and with CIBSE CP1(Heat Networks: Code of Practice of the UK)
  • Indoor air quality performance auditing (health and wellbeing)
  • Life cycle assessment including embodied carbon

Please click here to see the full list of services delivered by EVORA EDGE.

Andrew Cooper EVORA EDGE Technical Engineering SolutionsAndrew Cooper

Andrew has over 23 years of property experience. He is regarded as an expert in asset and energy management, and has a background in lease advisory. He is a Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Low Carbon Consultant (in Building Design, Building Simulation and Heat Networks), a CIBSE Low Carbon Energy Assessor (to Level 5, the highest level of accreditation possible) and a MEI Chartered Energy Manager. Andrew comments:

“I have worked as an independent consultant and Deloitte LLP sub-consultant since 2008, and I am delighted to be joining EVORA to help set up its new engineering division. EVORA EDGE will both complement and expand upon the existing technical services offered by company.”

Neil Dady EVORA EDGE Technical Engineering SolutionsNeil Dady

Neil has over 25 years Director-level experience in the building services sector, specialising in air conditioning and mechanical services. He has a wealth of experience in delivering energy audits, identifying inefficiencies and optimising energy performance whilst project managing deliverable solutions. Neil comments:

”Having worked with the EVORA team for many years, I am excited to be joining this dynamic business. EVORA EDGE will bridge the gap between design concepts and engineered projects. Our focus will be on practical solutions with measured and managed outcomes.”

Looking Ahead

This continues to be a very exciting time for EVORA. Our mission from the beginning has been to work with our clients to provide practical solutions whilst providing an outstanding level of service.

Our services now extend to:

  • EVORA – expert commercial real estate sustainability consultancy across Europe
  • SIERA – leading sustainability management software for the commercial real estate investment market
  • EVORA EDGE – industry-leading technical engineering solutions for the built environment

EVORA SIERA EVORA EDGE logos together

[clickToTweet tweet=”EVORA – providing practical #sustainability solutions and outstanding service to the #CRE sector.” quote=”EVORA – providing practical sustainability solutions and an outstanding level of service to the commercial real estate sector.”]

To learn more about any of the services delivered by EVORA EDGE, or to contact Andrew or Neil, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

New Guidance on Climate Related Disclosure and Reporting

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On December 14th 2016 the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate Related Disclosure published its long-awaited recommendation report. The report sets out recommendations for helping businesses disclose climate-related financial risks and opportunities.

The report states that the impact that global warming can have on economies is widely recognised.  However, at present, it is difficult for investors to know which companies are vulnerable to climate risks.  It is recognised that without financial disclosure, the financial impacts of climate change may not be effectively priced.  Pricing of risk is an essential function of financial markets.  It it is increasingly important to also understand the governance and risk management context in which financial results are achieved.

[clickToTweet tweet=”At present, it is difficult for investors to know which companies are vulnerable to #climaterisks.” quote=”At present, it is difficult for investors to know which companies are vulnerable to climate risks.”]

The Task Force states that non-financial disclosures should be:

  • Adoptable by all organisations
  • Included in financial filings
  • Designed to solicit decision-useful, forward-looking information on financial impacts
  • Strong focus on risks and opportunities related to transition to lower-carbon economy

The Task Force’s recommendations apply to all financial sector organisations including real estate asset managers and owners. Importantly, it is recognised that large asset owners and asset managers sit at the top of the investment chain and, therefore, have an important role to play in influencing the organisations in which they invest to provide better climate-related financial disclosures.

Recommendations are structured into four categories, as summarised below.

Governance

Organisations should disclose their governance approaches covering climate-related risks and opportunities.

Recommended disclosures:

  • The board’s oversight of climate-related risks and opportunities
  • Management’s role in assessing and managing climate-related risks and opportunities

[clickToTweet tweet=”Orgs should disclose their #governance approaches covering #climate related risks and opportunities” quote=”Organisations should disclose their governance approaches covering climate-related risks and opportunities.”]

Strategy

Organisations should disclose actual and potential impacts of climate-related risks and opportunities.

Recommended disclosures:

  • Climate related risks and opportunities the organisation has identified over the short, medium, and long term
  • The impact of climate-related risks and opportunities on the organisation’s businesses, strategy, and financial planning
  • The potential impact of different scenarios, including a 2°C scenario, on the organisations businesses, strategy, and financial planning (a clear link to the adoption of science based targets)

[clickToTweet tweet=”Orgs should disclose actual and potential impacts of #climate related #risks and #opportunities” quote=”Organisations should disclose actual and potential impacts of climate-related risks and opportunities.”]

Risk Management

Organisations should disclose how they identify, assesses, and manage climate-related risks.

Recommended disclosures:

  • Processes for identifying and assessing climate-related risks
  • Processes for managing climate-related risks
  • Processes for identifying, assessing, and managing climate- related risks are integrated into the organisation’s overall risk management

[clickToTweet tweet=”Organisations should disclose how they identify, assesses, and manage #climate related risks” quote=”Organisations should disclose how they identify, assesses, and manage climate-related risk.”]

Metrics and Targets

Organisations should disclose how metrics and targets are used to measure and manage risk.

Recommended disclosures:

  • Metrics used to assess climate risk
  • Scope 1, 2 and if appropriate (3) GHG emissions
  • Targets used to manage climate change risks and opportunities

[clickToTweet tweet=”Organisations should disclose how #metrics and targets are used to measure & manage #risks” quote=”Organisations should disclose how metrics and targets are used to measure and manage risk.”]

To underpin these recommendations, the Task Force also sets out seven principles for effective disclosure.

  1. Disclosures should represent relevant information
  2. Disclosures should be specific and complete
  3. Disclosures should be clear, balanced, and understandable
  4. Disclosures should be consistent over time
  5. Disclosures should be comparable among companies within a sector, industry, or portfolio
  6. Disclosures should be reliable, verifiable, and objective
  7. Disclosures should be provided on a timely basis

The Task Force’s recommendations provide a foundation to improve investors’ and others’ ability to appropriately assess and price climate-related risks and opportunities.   They are wide ranging but also practical in the near term allowing the financial industry to develop and grow capability to report within a structured framework.

For information and if you want to get more involved, a public consultation to solicit views on the Task Force’s recommendations is now open until 12 February 2017 and can be accessed here.

EVORA is uniquely positioned to support commercial real estate organisations in the development and reporting of climate risk strategies through to implementation of management plans and collation and analysis of sustainability data using SIERA – our industry leading sustainability management software.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

[clickToTweet tweet=”EVORA is uniquely positioned to support #CRE firms with dev & reporting of #climate risk strategies” quote=”EVORA is uniquely positioned to support commercial real estate organisations in the development and reporting of climate risk strategies.”]

Science-Based Targets: Considerations for the Commercial Real Estate Sector

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Interest in Science-Based Targets (SBTs) has grown significantly following last year’s Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris (which led to a climate change agreement signed by 195 member states) and more recently at COP22 in Marrakech. For a general overview, take a look at Part 1 for a short introduction to Science-Based Targets.

The importance of greenhouse gas emission reductions is expected to have varying implications across different industries. For the commercial real estate sector, there are several issues to consider.

Science-Based Targets: Categorising Emissions

SBT platforms require the input of emissions data, which is then analysed to generate emission reduction targets over time. Greenhouse gas emissions are caused by multiple organisational activities. One way to describe greenhouse gas emissions is through Scopes 1, 2 and 3 according to the GHG Protocol as shown in Figure 1.

Science-Based Targets: Discussions for Commercial Real Estate: Blog Image 1

Figure 1. Scopes and Emission Breakdown (Source: GHG Protocol, 2011)

Science-Based Targets: Discussions for Commercial Real Estate: Blog Image 2

Data on emissions from sources is collected, entered into a model, and then targets for each emission scope are set based on the business’ contribution to the overall 2°C reduction plan (agreed at COP21). This relies on the ability to measure and monitor accurately the different categories of greenhouse gas emissions for an organisation’s activities (Figure 1 – GHG Protocol, 2011). The Better Buildings Partnership (2016) recently made this observation, but specifically mentioned the landlord-tenant split and allocation of emissions as the key challenges. The problem for commercial real estate firms is who is made accountable for the emissions– the landlord, the tenant or both?

[clickToTweet tweet=”The problem for #CRE firms is who is accountable for #emissions – the landlord, the tenant or both?” quote=”The problem for commercial real estate firms is who is made accountable for the emissions– the landlord, the tenant or both?”]

Different Approaches

We have been asked by clients to explain how Science-Based Targets actually work in practice. This is a good question. At present, there are many approaches available. Examples include: the Sectoral Decarbonisation Approach (SDA); The Absolute Emissions Compression; The 3% Solution; Climate Stabilisation Intensity Targets (CSI); Corporate Finance Approach to Climate-Stabilising Targets (C-FACT); GHG Emissions per Value Added (GEVA) and Context-based Carbon Metrics (CSO). All have different approaches.

[clickToTweet tweet=”How do #sciencebasedtargets actually work in practice? This blog explores the answer…” quote=”How do Science-Based Targets actually work in practice?”]

The Sectoral Decarbonisation Approach (SDA) is currently being considered alongside other approaches within commercial real estate. It was originally developed by the Carbon Disclosure Project, World Resources Institute and WWF. Here, we focus on this approach, but in the future, we will consider other methodologies.

How does SDA work?

In short, this method splits up the carbon reduction pathway to different kinds of sectors and activities and is based on the establishment of business-level emission trajectories that support the 2°C global warming threshold, developed by the International Energy Agency, which limits the total remaining cumulative energy-related CO2 emissions between 2015 and 2100 to 1,000 GtCO2 (IEA, 2014).

The step-by-step approach for setting emissions targets

The steps below provide a summary of how SDA targets are set (this is intended to be an overview, please contact us for more information).

  1. Identify emissions by converting energy use into CO2e
  2. Categorize by Activity Type or Scope
  3. Produce a forecast of business-as-usual for each activity type – what will emissions look like if the business continues without intervention?
  4. Produce a forecast for each activity type based on the emission reduction required to align with the global 2°C carbon reduction target. This becomes your SBT
  5. Compare Business-as-Usual vs. Science-Based Target for the different activities
  6. Combine activity-level analysis to identify an overall target
  7. Track progress over time, engage and review
Science-Based Targets: Discussions for Commercial Real Estate: Blog Image 3

Figure 2. Sectoral Decarbonisation Approach Schematic. Source: Science-Based Targets http://sciencebasedtargets.org/

 

Modelling Methodologies – Some Considerations

Emissions data is not the only input that goes into the model – especially with regard to real estate. There are other things to consider:

  • Scale: What do the emissions cover and what is the timescale – building level or portfolio level?
  • Geography and Location: Where does it apply?
  • Activities: What kinds of activities occur in the building? What activity levels are we expecting to see in the building? What are the occupancy levels like? What does the electricity-use look like?
  • Trends and Changes Over Time: What are the consumption trends and how do we see this changing in the future i.e. rates of change?
  • The Grid and Energy Procurement: Should carbon emissions from the grid be factored into the model? How are regional variations in the make-up of the grid and type of energy procurement taken into account in the emission scenarios?

On the whole, there is the question of what to include or exclude from the model. There is a risk of data over-refinements and normalisation, which could lead to an erroneous not-so-Science-Based result, which could be meaningless as a strategy!

Data Accuracies: Measurement and Monitoring

Target-Setting begins with data. If the data was poor at the outset, it cannot be considered to be a true reflection of what is happening in reality and as a result, any target would be inaccurate. SBTs are only scientific in their alignment to decarbonisation pathways which lead to a limit of 2°C global surface temperature increase, but it is wrong to believe that SBTs can act as the silver-bullet approach to achieve cost-savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions directly.

[clickToTweet tweet=”It is wrong to believe that #sciencebasedtargets can act as a silver-bullet approach…” quote=”It is wrong to believe that SBTs can act as the silver-bullet approach to achieve cost-savings and greenhouse gas emission reductions directly.”]

Another issue is how to set the baseline for SBTs. Of course, the scale and extent of data matters in this case, especially with the issues of measurement, monitoring and completeness of greenhouse gas emissions data at the building and portfolio level.

Concluding Remarks

Setting SBTs has the potential to convey a message and a common goal; but there is a need to link to the bigger picture.

Other factors should be considered alongside SBTs for maximizing the performance of portfolios through achieving energy and cost-saving opportunities. The setting of SBTs as outlined above does not consider opportunity for improvement. SBTs should be used as the initial framework and its design should be informed by data and sustainability management strategies, as well as the climate science. Performance must also be tracked over time to assess alignment to the target.

In the future, SBTs are expected to be a popular area for development, but for now, take-up is still slow in the commercial real estate industry.

What next? It is clear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, if you identify any issues on sustainability and data management strategies that you would like to talk to us more about, please get in touch.

Further reading:

We’re Hiring! Senior Sustainability Consultant Required to Support Our Growth

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Position: Senior Sustainability Consultant
Salary: Up to £37,000 plus benefits and bonus
Location: London or Bolton, Greater Manchester

Overview

EVORA is a successful sustainability consultancy specialising in commercial real estate, which has also developed a market-leading sustainability management software, SIERA. We have an outstanding team of committed professionals and an enviable client base of international blue chip companies, including global property advisors, institutional fund managers and banks.

To support the exciting growth of the business, we are seeking a highly motivated and talented sustainability professional at Senior Consultant level. This position offers a very exciting opportunity to work with high profile blue chip companies delivering a broad spectrum of sustainability services, offering great career potential.

Passion and a determination to deliver excellence are essential qualities, as is a commercially astute and innovative approach to delivering client solutions.

Purpose

  • Delivery of a broad range of sustainability services to commercial real estate sector clients
  • Client management
  • Support in business development

Core Responsibilities

  • EMS development and operation to ISO certification levels
  • CRC management & GHG reporting
  • GRESB completion
  • Manage large environmental data management programmes, coordinating multiple parties across Europe
  • Monitoring and analysis of energy consumption data
  • Client management

Requirements

  • Degree or Masters in related subject & membership of an appropriate and recognised professional body (e.g. IEMA associate/full member)
  • Creative and resourceful with an ability to laterally apply knowledge to deliver value added solutions
  • Detailed understanding of environmental legislation
  • Second European language desirable but not essential
  • Highly articulate and numerate
  • Advanced IT skills

To apply for this position, please send your CV and a covering letter to info@evoraglobal.com with “Senior Sustainability Consultant Application” as the subject of the email.

Science-Based Targets: A Quick Introduction

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This is an introductory post. To find out what Science-Based Targets mean for commercial real estate firms, look out for Part 2. You can join our exclusive mailing list here.

What does it all mean?

Interest in Science-Based Targets (SBTs) has grown significantly following last year’s Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris (which led to a climate change agreement signed by 195 member states) and more recently at COP22 in Marrakech.

Climate modelling studies point to the influence of human-driven climate change on increasing overall global surface temperatures. SBTs have been established to support achievement of the agreed target which aims to keep global warming below 2°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures (IPCC, 2013). Thus, it is important to situate CO2 emissions within the framework of the past, present and future (IPCC, 2013) and this represents a long-term commitment in tackling climate change.

Science-Based Targets: The Potential?

There is a lot of potential for SBTs, as their use could bolster corporate action on making long-term greenhouse gas emission reductions, as carbon emissions have been proven to enhance the earth’s greenhouse effect, leading to increasing global surface temperatures.

However, SBTs will only be effective because they align to the Paris Agreement’s 2°C target which is a simple, clear goal that not only conveys the urgency of the need for action, but also allows policy-makers to make decisions which have global significance (Rahmstorf, 2014).

How Scientific is a Science-Based Target?

SBTs are scientific in the sense that they align to the 2°C global warming target, but the process that goes into designing a SBT is complex and resource-intensive and may not be transparent to the user. As with climate modelling techniques, tools used to inform SBTs are still undergoing refinements, and to this end, there are still some issues to consider in terms of their practical applications.

To the user, SBTs appear as a ‘black box’ solution. Information on user activities are inputted into the systems and this is used to generate outputs.  However, to the regular user, little known about how the calculations are made. Understanding on how SBTs work will need to develop before we see widespread use.

Science-Based Targets: A 5-Minute Discussion Blog Image 1

Figure 1. A Black Box. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_box

Even without a SBT, it makes sense to seek energy-saving measures, apply sustainability strategies to prevent loss of financial value and improve organizational reputation. If used correctly, a SBT can support development of improvement goals and plans. However, such targets can vary according to the context of use, importantly, the data used to inform the target-setting process at the outset. Moving forward, it will be important to assess the applicability of each SBT approach and how it works in practice.

Final Thoughts

There are multiple SBT methodologies out there and results will differ dependent on the approach taken. At a user level the analogy of cake baking using different ovens can be used.  All ingredients are prepared in the same way, however, different ovens lead to differing results. One questions whether multiple different approaches will help to achieve the common goal or will the complexity cause confusion and possibly even slow progress.

SBTs are still in their infancy.  Profile is increasing but understanding is still low. The initiative is certainly thought-provoking and something to look out for in the future. At the present time, SBTs do not have the same weight in the commercial real estate sector than it does in other sectors and take-up has been slow.

Look out for Part 2 in this series: Science-Based Targets: Discussions for Commercial Real Estate

To talk to us about Science-Based Targets and what they mean for your organisation, please get in touch.

Interesting Links:

Science-Based Targets Initiative

COP22 Marrakech

IPCC: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis

How Can GRESB Help to Deliver Fund Performance? Key Highlights from Our Exclusive Event

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Read this post for some exclusive updates from GRESB that were announced during the event, and to find out how you can make sure you don’t miss out on attending our future events.

Background

EVORA is a GRESB Premier PartnerOn Tuesday 15th November 2016, EVORA ran an important industry event considering the impact GRESB (the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) is having on the real estate industry. Over 60 attendees from more than 50 commercial real estate firms attended.

As a business that works solely with the real estate sector in providing practical sustainability solutions, EVORA has seen the meteoric rise of GRESB since its initiation six years ago. In fact, we have been working with GRESB and supporting our clients in the completion of the survey since 2011 – we are also a GRESB Premier Partner – and this year we were involved in the completion of 41 submissions. So it’s fair to say that GRESB is a subject that’s close to our hearts!

There is no doubt that GRESB has had a major impact in mobilizing the real estate industry to embrace the issues of sustainability. From its humble beginnings in 2010, 2016 saw 759 participants complete the survey representing US$2.8 trillion of asset value. However, the benchmark survey is complex and challenging to complete and GRESB pretty much has a monopoly in this area of benchmarking the sustainability performance of real estate portfolios.

[clickToTweet tweet=”There’s no doubt @GRESB has mobilized the CRE sector to embrace the issues of sustainability.” quote=”There is no doubt that GRESB has had a major impact in mobilizing the real estate industry to embrace the issues of sustainability.”]

And it was with this in mind, that we decided to run this exclusive invitation-only event, kindly hosted by TH Real Estate and chaired by Sarah Ratcliffe, Programme Director at the BBP, which considered ‘How Can GRESB Help to Deliver Fund Performance?’.

Great representation from industry leaders

We had five outstanding speakers from the industry, each with their own experiences and opinions of GRESB: Abigail Dean, Head of Sustainability at TH Real Estate; Dan Grandage, Head of Sustainability at Aberdeen Asset Management; Mathieu Elshout, Investment Director at PGGM; Erik Ruane, formerly Head of Development and Head of Sustainability at a leading pan-European, real estate fund management group; and last but by no means least, our own Paul Sutcliffe, co-Founder and Director at EVORA.

The results of our pre-event survey

Paul presented the results from our pre-event survey completed by the participants, which provided some interesting findings.

Firstly, the majority agreed that GRESB is both investor-driven and important to investors, which should be no surprise, since this was the original intention of GRESB.

Of greater note, was the far smaller proportion who thought their GRESB rating fairly reflected their sustainability performance and accurately reflected the key issues, highlighting that many respondents feel that greater alignment is required.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Does your @GRESB rating fairly reflect your overall #sustainability performance?” quote=”Do you think your GRESB rating fairly reflects your overall sustainability performance?”]

EVORA - How Can GRESB Help to Deliver Fund Performance? Blog Image 3

Opinions of the Speakers

1. The Benefits

Paul kicked off by re-enforcing that GRESB is a force for good, driving change and focusing on participation. He also highlighted the alignment of the survey to a best practice management system approach (Plan/Do/Check/Act), which from our own experiences, support in driving performance – see our well-received thought leadership piece by Ed Gabbitas on this:

Environmental Management Systems: Plan-Do-Check-Act…Deliver?

Abigail highlighted that GRESB had pushed the industry to improve, whilst enhancing investor insight. Dan and Mathieu also said it supported fund strategy and post-performance evaluation, helping in year-on-year objective and target setting for the funds. Importantly, Erik highlighted that at a more practical level, GRESB had promoted wider utility data collection enabling the funds to better understand performance both at portfolio and asset level.

[clickToTweet tweet=”@GRESB has promoted wider utility #data collection enabling funds to better understand performance.” quote=”GRESB has promoted wider utility data collection enabling funds to better understand performance both at portfolio and asset level.”]

2. The Challenges

What did the speakers see as the challenges? Paul and Abigail highlighted that scoring rewards the wrong behaviour by being more about coverage of data than efficient buildings, and year-on-year improvements rather than absolute performance. Another key issue was the risk of chasing GRESB points, which may not add value to the fund.

A consistent theme from all the presenters was that one size did not fit all, with specific reference to opportunistic and value add funds that can struggle to perform well in the survey, a key area Sander Paul of GRESB picked up on in the Q&A – keep reading!

EVORA - How Can GRESB Help to Deliver Fund Performance? Blog Image 2

A Lively Q&A Session

Presentations were followed by a lively Q&A discussion with a panel that included Sander Paul van Tongeren, Head of EMEA and co-founder of GRESB, and Olivia Muir, European Analyst at UBS. Olivia, highlighted from an investor perspective the importance of GRESB to provide a due diligence tool for the capital markets, but accepted that the GRESB performance data had to be re-worked to provide appropriate outputs.

EVORA - How Can GRESB Help to Deliver Fund Performance? Blog Image 4Our attendees heard it first! Exciting updates for 2018, direct from GRESB

Sander Paul agreed that one size fits all is not ideal. He advised 2017 would be a period of stability for the GRESB Real Estate Assessment with minor updates, but that there would be changes going forward. GRESB is exploring property type supplements, where ESG-performance would be aligned to the specific nuances of different property types, and potentially regional supplements as well.

New industry working groups will be set up in early 2017 to support in the development of the 2018 GRESB Real Estate Assessment.

However, he did highlight that GRESB also offers a Developer Assessment, which might be applicable to some of the opportunistic and value add funds that consider development activities to be their core business. It is a stand-alone assessment that contains a selection of questions from the Real Estate Assessment.

EVORA - How Can GRESB Help to Deliver Fund Performance? Blog Image 5Sander Paul also spoke of the importance of optimising property portfolios to reduce their environmental impacts to counter the significant risks of climate change. He expressed the need for disruptive technologies to help achieve this, including innovative software solutions, an area we have majored on with the development of our unique real estate focused sustainability management software, SIERA.

Comments were also made that the GRESB scoring had been opaque. Sander Paul advised that the GRESB validation process and scoring model is now available here, and also on their website.

[clickToTweet tweet=”The @GRESB validation process and scoring model is now available on their website.” quote=”The GRESB validation process and scoring model is now available on their website.”]

A great wrap-up by Sarah Ratcliffe

In summing up, Sarah Ratcliffe provided a fantastic analogy of the evolution of GRESB, comparing it to a child growing up and currently being a teenager; slightly spotty, with a number of imperfections and a bit awkward, but with lots of potential!

I’d agree with this and I certainly do believe in GRESB’s potential. However, as an industry, the onus is upon us to ensure that GRESB not only transforms through mobilising the real estate sector, but also that the content – and hence the scoring – is absolutely aligned to material sustainability issues that can impact on fund performance both now and in the future.

This was an invitation-only event to those on our mailing list.

If you did not receive an invitation but would have liked to attend, please click here to join our mailing list now.

To talk to us about GRESB support in 2017, implementing an EMS, or to request a demo of SIERA, please get in touch.

Further reading:

GRESB also offers an ESG Masterclass which focuses on interpretation of the annual GRESB Real Estate Assessment results and the various reporting and benchmarking tools available to real estate investors, companies and fund managers. The program addresses all material aspects of ESG in real estate investment portfolios as covered by the GRESB Real Estate Assessment.