ESG Reporting in Real Estate

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting is an effective tool for communicating a company's ESG policies, achievements, and ambitions to stakeholders and the public. Investors often use ESG reporting to gain insights into a company's accomplishments and improvements, as well as to develop business strategies and understand future targets and aspirations.

In the real estate sector, ESG reporting is also referred to as Responsible Property Investment (RPI), which discloses data on a company's impact on the planet. However, to maintain consistency, companies globally need to adhere to certain standards and frameworks when conducting ESG reporting. The industry has several standards, including:

• The Global Standards for Sustainability Reporting: These standards apply to organizations of all sizes, both public and private, and enable them to report on their economic, environmental, and social impacts in a comparable and credible manner. These standards are often used by companies when they start their ESG reporting journey.

• European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA): EPRA supports the transition towards a sustainable built environment by providing sustainability reporting and identifying opportunities for its members at the European level.

• The INREV SDDS: This standardized data tool offers financial management information to investors, allowing them to easily integrate the data into their systems. The guidelines of INREV SDDS focus on the content of the report rather than its format.

• SGD National Reporting Initiatives: This refers to the publication and dissemination of data and statistics. Key stakeholders include UN custodian agencies, government policymakers, businesses, NGOs, research institutions, and the general public.

Therefore, before selecting the guidelines and framework that best suit a company, it is important to assess the company's activities in terms of environmental, social, and governance aspects. It is also advisable to identify the target audience, understand the main stakeholders, and conduct a materiality review to determine which topics are most relevant to the business.

The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have emphasized the need for high-quality, transparent, reliable, and comparable reporting on climate and other environmental, social, and governance matters.