Investors unite to push for deeper ESG reporting across Asia-Pacific

A group of 16 investors - including Bouwinvest - representing US $19 trillion have launched a round of coordinated engagements to strengthen dialogue on ESG performance and GRESB participation with real estate companies across 12 key markets in the APAC region. The work is undertaken in close collaboration with GRESB, a global ESG benchmark for real estate portfolios.

This year’s initiative – focused on markets such as Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan – is supported by established investors including B&I Capital, Bouwinvest, CenterSquare, Heitman, JP Morgan Asset Management, and Schroders.

Real estate companies in Asia-Pacific tend to score highly in the GRESB Benchmark, often leading the world in aggregate, but tend to submit data later in their ESG journey than companies in other regions, which has led to underrepresentation in total numbers.

In addition to providing ESG data directly to investors, real estate companies that participate in GRESB often indirectly benefit through ESG indices such as the iEdge-UOB APAC Green Reit Index launched in October 2021, which uses GRESB Assessment performance data.

This year, 50 companies will be engaged and invited to participate in the GRESB Real Estate Assessment. This is an expansion from last year, in which 13 investors collaborated with GRESB to reach out to more than 30 companies in nine Asian markets.

Tim Kesseler, Portfolio Analyst, Listed at Bouwinvest said: “We develop full ESG models in addition to our financial models for our integrated listed and non-listed investments. At Bouwinvest we view companies with strong ESG standards favorably. It is very helpful where companies participate in GRESB as this means that the information will go automatically into our models.”