What is the Objective of ESG Governance in real estate?

In Real Estate ESG Governance places a focus on company transparency and honest administration, as well as ethical behavior both internally and externally. These facets include corruption prevention, the handling of sensitive data, whistleblowing policies, anti-bribery measures and overall company management. 

In order to show a company is operating ethically and in a responsible manner, disclosures become one of the most important aspects of proper governance in real estate ESG. Additionally, businesses need to ensure the protection of intellectual property and physical assets with suitable security measures and risk management protocols.

The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals provide a high level guide to real estate governance as they contain objectives such as decent work and economic growth, gender equality improvements and the reduction of inequities.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for real estate esg governance

ESG Key Performance Indicators help track the performance of a company’s sustainability and ESG goals, specifically focusing on policies and practices within the business’s organizational structure. How does it treat its employees and suppliers? How does it prevent and/or deal with security breaches? How diverse is a company’s workforce and what is management doing to provide additional training hours for employees?

Policy development includes the creation of corporate governance guidelines, supplier and employee codes of conduct, responsible procurement strategies, data privacy measures, climate risk, and of course the all important annual reporting process in which the company provides stakeholders with a transparent review of its real estate ESG performance as well as a plan for the years to come.

Management Software for real estate esg governance

ESG software platforms such as Workiva and Measurabl provide a platform for unified ESG reporting through data management, the provision of reporting templates, and a single location for all policy documents. While there are clear advantages to using such software at scale, across teams, departments and territories, the value-add from a specialist real estate ESG management platform is that it provides a welcome dose of expert guidance, additional templates and ultimately a centralized repository for all ESG governance work during the reporting year.