Analysis of GRESB and ISO 21929-1 Indicators and Which Ones Cover more the Sustainable Development of the United Nations Goals

Abstract

The adoption of certification systems in buildings that make up the portfolio of assets of real estate companies have been growing in recent times, being one of the strategies linked to the Environmental Social Governance (ESG), where their reports are often used as a form of marketing to demonstrate their socio-environmental responsibility. The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) platform is widely used for this context. However, when analyzing its indicators, it was identified that GRESB does not have great coverage of sustainability, when using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a metric to identify the level of contribution to sustainability, having a focus majority for GHG emissions, energy consumption, water and waste management. On the other hand, ISO 21292-1 has a set of indicators that have better coverage of sustainability in the environmental, social and economic spheres. This analysis helps to raise the question about the use of marketing in disseminating ESG reports in the real estate sector and what is its real contribution to society through the tools adopted to measure sustainability performance.

Keywords

• Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark
• Sustainable Development Goals
• ISO 21292- 1
• Responsible Marketing