Real Estate Benchmark
The world’s largest real estate investors must support a just transition in the built environment
The construction and operation of buildings are significant contributors to climate change, accounting for 37 per cent of all energy-related emissions. Investors that own and finance buildings must take responsibility for their climate impacts and reduce emissions sharply, to limit global heating and the impacts of the climate crisis.
We spend our lives in buildings – our homes, offices, shops and leisure spaces – and they shape the quality of our lives. To many investors, these buildings are financial assets. Their investment decisions can have an enormous impact on the lives of ordinary people – for better or for worse. Responsible investors must take these impacts on people as seriously as financial risk and return, to ensure a just transition in the built environment.
The real estate benchmark will assess:
Investment managers’ climate targets
Whether they disclose a clear strategy to decarbonise
Their approaches to identifying and managing social risks and opportunities
Assessing real estate investment managers
Real estate investment managers are custodians of wealth, investing in real estate on behalf of their clients. In ShareAction’s first real estate benchmark, we assess the disclosures of some of the world’s largest real estate investment managers to understand their approach to tackling climate change, and managing and the social impacts of their direct investments.
