Canadian participation in the GRESB global assessment and benchmark for the ESG performance of commercial real estate portfolios grew in step with worldwide trends in 2024.

Multifamily real estate entities reporting to GRESB, the global assessment and benchmark for the ESG performance of portfolios, can expect new criteria next year.

Energy efficiency will gain standing in the 2025 GRESB assessment when the global benchmark for ESG performance of commercial real estate portfolios introduces revised scoring for its energy performance metric.

National averages aren’t revealed in the recently released 2023 global results, but Canada's high ranking among 75 participating countries was confirmed during an online discussion of trends underpinning the numbers.

Canadian participants accounted for less than 3 per cent of the entire GRESB database in 2021, but make up nearly 5 per cent of the 5-star cohort, which achieved the top 20 per cent of scores through the assessment.

Commercial real estate investors, owners and managers are acknowledging that entrenched social inequities undermine their workforces, their tenants and the value of their portfolios.

More than 50 per cent of participating Canadian portfolios were grouped in the top two brackets of results, with 11 earning 5-star status and six attaining a 4-star rating.

The mounting consequences of being stuck fast in the wrong place for an extended wrong time begin with soaring insurance premiums and end with stranded assets.

Major Canadian players figure among both GRESB investor members with full access to the data and the larger complement of management members that report and are benchmarked through the real estate assessment.

Canada's Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance suggests there is more untapped opportunity than coordinated action in a market grappling with emerging imperatives for climate-related financial disclosure and integrating ESG measures.