CBRE Investment Management Significantly Increases Average Scores, Exceeds Direct Real Estate Industry Average in GRESB Real Estate Assessment

24 October 2023

CBRE Investment Management significantly increased its average weighted score for Direct Real Estate and far exceeded the GRESB average in the 2023 GRESB Real Estate Benchmark Assessment.

CBRE IM submitted 64 portfolios to the real estate assessment this year—the most of any commercial real estate fund manager for the fourth year in a row. GRESB, which is a leading global sustainability benchmark for real assets, provides a framework to assess, compare and discuss sustainability governance and performance.

CBRE IM’s real estate commingled funds, separate accounts and joint ventures achieved high marks from GRESB, including:

• A more than four-point increase in the Direct Real Estate average weighted score compared to 2022
• Average weighted scores for both Direct Real Estate and for Development that exceeded the respective GRESB averages by nearly 10 points
• Four real estate peer group leaders:
  • CBRE Strategic Partners Fund Value 8
  • CBRE Retail Property Fund Iberica
  • A UK Separate Account portfolio
  • NN Group Separate Account portfolio
• A 30 out of 30 score on the management component of the assessment for the Direct Real Estate portfolios demonstrating strong sustainability governance

The firm’s global core infrastructure fund also improved its weighted score by more than 13 points compared with 2022. Additionally, the firm actively encouraged its infrastructure portfolio companies to submit to GRESB. These companies made strong gains, highlighted by a more than 12-point increase in the average score and Connect Bus being named a peer group leader.

“This level of participation and the results achieved highlight our firm’s commitment to sustainability performance, continual improvement and transparency,” said Helen Gurfel, Head of Sustainability and Innovation, CBRE Investment Management. “We believe that our approach to sustainability is essential to managing risk, creating value and driving long-term investment performance.”

Source: CBRE