1 minute read
Investors apply greater scrutiny
Jack Noonan delivers presentation at Deakin University
In recent years large real estate owners and institutional investors have started to search for more stringent sustainability metrics for their portfolios in response to growing stakeholder demands to prove that “what’s under the hood” matches “what it says on the label”.
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Organisations such as the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) track ESG performance by owners on a comparative basis, while influential investors such as Larry Fink, who runs the world’s biggest fund manager, BlackRock, underscores the critical importance of better environmental and social performance in his yearly missive to investor chief executives.
According to Jack Noonan, “It’s been quite easy for some time now to demonstrate what good environmental performance looks like. “In the same way, it’s been relatively easy to show what good governance looks like with initiatives like board diversity and risk management practices.
“Social sustainability, though, has been quite difficult for organisations to get their heads around and to work out which community engagement or health and well-being projects are good and how they compare with what their peers are doing.”
This is where achievements in WELL have played an increasingly important role.
It is a third party verified assessment of health and well-being that translates and measures an organisation’s commitment to its most valuable asset, its people. And it shows what good social sustainability can look like.
“How an organisation tracks reports and improves on human and social capital metrics, metrics that address health and humanity, are routinely underreported by companies, misunderstood by investors and undervalued in ESG scores. That’s why leadingedge companies aren’t waiting for regulatory bodies or industries to mandate or even incentivise this shift. Rather than just saying people are their greatest asset, they’re acting on it by way of their real estate and embracing the fundamental truth that high-performing businesses require high-performing people.”
