Winning in the Long Run - Driving sustainable financial performance on real estate WORKING PAPER 5

This paper reports on the first empirical findings of a RICS ET supported project aimed at establishing data which links the financial performance of standing commercial property investments within a range of European property portfolios, with their sustainability characteristics. The conceptual model for the work was established last year in a series of working papers including a presentation at ERES 2010. It is important that this model is not reliant on any building being analysed having a ëgreení certification as few buildings in continental Europe are so rated and rating systems where used vary in their composition. The project is in response to the requirement for investors, many of whom have now adopted a policy of moving towards responsible investment, to better understand the financial implications of their adopted strategies. Since the authors, a team from Danube Krems University and Kingston University, set up the project last year, investors from across Europe have supplied data from real assets of institutional investment portfolios across Europe, from Portugal to Denmark and from Scotland to Hungary. This data is being supplemented by location and economic data and the sustainability indicators chosen are building on previous research and using the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative GRI (Version 3) and the Construction and Real Estate Sector Supplement CRESS (Final Draft). The environmental aspects are measured in accordance with the Best Practice Recommendations on Sustainability BPR of the European Public Real Estate Association EPRA (Draft Version), referring to the common metrics identified by the Green Property Alliance GPA (Ground Rules for Property). The sustainability and financial data is being analysed using customised investment software and standard data mining tools such as SPSS Statistics in order to present first findings in a quest to establish whether or not, currently, there is indeed a ëGreen Alphaí.