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A Connected World: An Introduction to the Internet of Things (Part 1 of 3)

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The world is becoming more interconnected than ever before. The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is an exciting development for many industries and disciplines. You do not have to be a technology expert to realise the potential of IoT.

This blog series takes you on a journey to demystify the IoT concept. Throughout the series, you will understand the implications for real estate investment and management and applications to energy and sustainability performance and we will give you an insight into our very own SIERA platform.

Let’s begin with the concept of the Internet of Things. What is it?

The IoT is a network of physical objects, an ecosystem of devices, buildings and other ‘things’ connected to one another electronically, through software, sensors and connections. Data flows between these ‘things’. They are internet-enabled with links between devices, apps and services, data and the cloud. This sits within something called the ‘Internet of Everything’ which is the connection of data, processes, people and things. As the world is becoming an increasingly interconnected place, some people have even called this phenomenon the 4th Industrial Revolution.

What’s all the fuss about?

It’s all about data and how it interacts with the ‘things’. Through data exchanges, we can begin to get a deeper understanding of the value that can be extracted from core processes and interactions. For real estate investment and management, buildings, people and energy performance forms part of the network. Later in the blog series, we explore the opportunities of IoT for the industry. Many industries are now future-proofing for IoT; attention has been drawn to big data and data management.

Gartner summarised it quite nicely by framing ‘data’ as the currency of the IoT, from which the value can truly be harnessed if the data can be translated to information which can create business transformation and inform strategy.

Four Impacts of the IoT

Impact 1:

The IoT will transform and shape the future for many industries including the commercial real estate sector

Impact 2:

Connectivity and platforms are crucial. There is a requirement that data can be accessed anytime and anywhere in the world. Whether you are in Hong Kong, New York or London – your data is there, anytime, anywhere, in any context and on any network.

Impact 3:

It is not just about connectivity, but accessibility, availability and security are also important. We found that in the real estate investment and management sector, data management has been a key issue – data is traditionally stored on numerous computers, held offline on paper and data loss has been a core risk. Nowadays, data is no longer restricted to a hard drive on a desktop computer, or a USB, but the cloud is a popular means to store data.

Impact 4:

A big focus on data. Data visualisation, data analytics and data mining approaches will be some of the ways to interrogate the data in more detail. Data validation and verification will be essential to question the data and ensure it is meaningful.

Sustainability Intelligence Environmental Reporting & Analysis (SIERA)

We are working hard at the leading-edge to understand our industry needs. We have adopted an agile development and management methodology which has enabled us to situate ourselves within a data-driven landscape. Get in touch to book a demo of SIERA today, which is our proprietary sustainability management software designed for the information age. We would love to have a personal conversation with you to assess your current infrastructure and to discover how SIERA could help you tap into new opportunities.

Part 2 of this series will focus on the implications and applications of IoT for commercial real estate investment management, sustainability and energy performance.

To speak to us about SIERA, or for any other enquiries, please don’t hesitate to 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.

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 Staff Andrew CooperAndrew 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

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

[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.”]

Season’s Greetings and Tips for the Festive Period

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With Christmas less than a week away, 2016 is almost at a close, bringing a year of important and exciting developments in the sustainability sector to an end.

Between the outputs of the COP22 UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh and a growing emphasis on the need for greater energy efficiency and the potential improvements in the built environment by the International Energy Agency, 2016 has been a year during which sustainability and energy management concerns remained at the forefront of international attention. The recent interest in science based targets and increased participation in GRESB in turn demonstrate growing awareness of the importance of sustainability in the real estate sector.

The outcome of the EU referendum in the UK, the abolition of the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the election of Donald Trump to the post of president of the United States all, however, continue to raise concerns about the outlook of environmental regulation and the scope for coordinated efforts to combat climate change. The close of 2016 thus leaves us with a range of sustainability commitments, opportunities and challenges to address in the coming year.

On behalf of EVORA we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We look forward to helping you to stay informed about important developments and supporting you as you navigate the sustainability challenges and opportunities that 2017 is set to bring.

For those committed to keeping up their energy and resource efficiency efforts over the festive periods, see below for a number of tips for the festive period:

  1. Turning down the thermostat: Reducing the heating temperature by 1°C degree between Christmas and new year could reduce the average office energy usage by up to 8% and save enough energy to roast 108 Christmas turkeys.
  2. Switching off all non-essential appliances such as monitors, chargers and printers in the average office over the festive period could save enough energy to power 137,934 TVs during the Queen’s Christmas speech.
  3. Switching off or turning down non-essential lighting: In the average office, switching off non-essential lighting over the festive period could save enough energy to light up 12,163 LED Christmas trees lights for a day.

Would you like to know more about the sustainability challenges and opportunities that 2017 is set to bring? Please get in touch.

 

CRC Annual Report Publication: Key Results for Phase 2

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The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme Annual Report Publication (ARP) covering the first 2 compliance years of Phase 2 has been published today.

CRC Annual Report: key results

Key results for Phase 2 to the end of the 2015/16 compliance year show:

  • Total revenue through carbon allowance purchases in 2015/16 increased 18.2% to £902,957,350 compared to 2014/15
  • Total energy use reported for 2015/16 was 3.2% lower than 2014/15: equivalent to 3,558,208MWh
  • Total reported emissions for 2015/16 were 9.7% lower than 2014/15: equivalent to 4,415,594tCO2
  • 1,858 participants registered for Phase 2; this is a small reduction in the number of participants when compared with the final year of Phase 1

The key results present some very serious numbers, including a near £1bn revenue stream for the government and some notable improvements in energy usage and carbon impact.

3.2% reduction in annual energy usage

The CRC is due to be scrapped following completion of the 2019 compliance year (in July 2019). The Scheme has been widely criticised by Participants as overly burdensome and costly to administer.  Others will argue that the benefit of identifying and reporting annual emissions has brought attention to energy efficiency improvements, as demonstrated through the 3.2% reduction in reported energy use.

Irrespective of what happens going forwards, monitoring will continue to be essential to ensure understanding of energy performance and to help track energy efficiency. Our proprietary software, SIERA, is a market leading, innovative and easy-to-use environmental management software system. SIERA is already managing billions of pounds worth of real estate, and is being rapidly adopted by large organisations across the globe.

Find out how SIERA can transform your data capture and reporting by calling our experts today.

 

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.

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

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.

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

On 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?”]

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!

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.

Our 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.

Sander 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.