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Janine Shea

WBCSD - World Business Council for Sustainable Development - 0 views

www.wbcsd.org/...overview.aspx

GroundUp Validation Research Non-Profit Sustainability Urbanism Corporate_Sponsors

shared by Janine Shea on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • The WBCSD's Urban Infrastructure Initiative (UII) brings together a diverse group of companies: ACCIONA, AECOM, AGC, CEMEX, EDF, GDF SUEZ, Honda, Nissan, Philips, Siemens, TNT, Toyota and UTC. The UII Co-chairs are CEMEX, GDF SUEZ, Schneider Electric and Siemens; WBCSD is also actively involved as Co-chair. These companies from sectors including energy, buildings, materials, transport, engineering, water, equipment, and support services are collaborating to help urban authorities develop realistic, practical and cost-effective sustainability action plans. The project draws on the expertise of individual companies who already work with urban planners and engineers to provide services and solutions to sustainability challenges in cities.
  • For cities, the case for action is compelling: A sustainable city is more competitive and offers its citizens better lives. It uses resources more efficiently, thrives economically, and creates an inclusive community. For companies, the case for action is also compelling:  the urban market offers companies the opportunity to provide systems solutions, products and services in support of sustainable development in cities (buildings, energy, infrastructure, waste collection and recycling, etc.)
  • Each city faces different challenges. Tailor-made solutions are required, as challenges and opportunities vary from country to country and city to city. Some cities can capitalize on expanding populations. Others need to deal with aging and declining numbers. City governments must therefore find systemic solutions to address the interlinked social and environmental challenges and create the right framework conditions to make them competitive in order to attract investments.
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  • Working with authorities in key cities, the UII will help create action plans and translate their defined issues into landscape solutions for sustainable urban development.
  • The initiative is currently in the process of identifying the cities which will participate in the UII project.
Janine Shea

Metrics for Responsible Property Investing: Developing and Maintaining a High Performan... - 0 views

www.scribd.com/...g-a-High-Performance-Portfolio

GroundUp Validation Responsible_Property_Investing Socially_Responsible_Investing Sustainability Metrics

shared by Janine Shea on 29 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • To date, however, the industry has yet todevelop standards to evaluate ESG datathat compare to its traditional evaluation o portolio perormance.
  •   5 Responsible Property Investment [RPI] is anemerging investment strategy and disciplineconcerned with integrating environmental,social, and governance [ESG] data intoinvestment decision-making
  • Real estate investment plays a undamentalrole in determining how society usesresources, how the built environmentshapes social lie, how economic activitycan be sustainable over time. As an assetclass, real estate oers especially tangibledemonstrations o the importance o ESGanalysis in creating value or investors andsociety alike. We believe that a robustmetrics system can help shape the marketto better create sustainable outcomes or allstakeholders
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  •   6 Institutional real estate is in the midst o a major downturn
  • growing awareness among investorsthat environmental and social analysis canenhance their ability to assess building andportolio perormance over the long term.
  • Energyuseingreenbuildingis29to50 percent less than non-green counterparts. •Greenbuildingsuseanestimated40 percent less water. •Carbondioxideemissionsingreen buildings are reduced by 33 to 39percent. •Solidwasteattributabletogreenbuildings is reduced by 70 percent
  • In practice, these issues havebeen treated as vital by many investors – RPIoers a means to bring them together into acoherent ramework
  • SmartGrowth
  • SocialEquityandCommunity Development
  • UrbanRevitalization
  • size o the US commercial real estate marketat $5 trillion, with approximately $2.5 trillionin assets owned by institutional investors.
  • EnergyConservation
  • EnvironmentalProtection
  • WorkerWell-Being
  • HealthandSafety
  • LocalCitizenship
  • CorporateCitizenship
  • Figure 2: “Market standard” fund performance characteristics
  • The increased global and 2.2  Impacts o Sustainability on Institutional Real Estate Table 1: Sustainability Impacts on Real Estate social awareness about sustainability ingeneral has sharply impacted institutional realestate in several interrelated ways,
  • Global Reporting Initiativeand Principles or Responsible Investing
  • Ideally, a unied approach could also be takento visualizing, analyzing, and managing thedata obtained or individual metrics, buildingupon the action items mentioned aboveto create a dashboard or monitoring andimproving portolio perormance in the contexto RPI and investor and stakeholder interests.
  • The eld o RPI lacks a powerul, standardizedset o portolio-level metrics which isrecognized and used by investors andmanagers across the real estate industry,thereby dening and giving credibility to thepractice o RPI
  • The scope o RPI is broad. It includes, orexample, “deep green” projects that ocuson poor communities or environmentallyragile areas, energy ecient buildings thatoer clear nancial advantages throughreduced operating costs, aordable housingprojects that draw upon local tax credits,and now carbon reduction projects thathedge risk and result in renewable energycerticates.
  • we have developed a seto 26 quantitative metrics that can helpinvestors to nd, create and articulate valuethrough improving the economic, social, andenvironmental prole o their investments.
  • Thesemetrics were selected or their ability to allowreal estate proessionals to better addressrisks and identiy opportunities or long-termvalue creation.
  • Table 2: Proposed RPI Metrics
  • Measuring the walkscore or a property isa simple as putting in the address into thewalkscore calculator (www.walkscore.com)
  • the premiums suggesthigher rents, occupancy and general marketdemand or walkable properties.
  • By trackingthe ability o properties to create jobs andprovide services or underserved areas,investors can lower risks associated withregulation and community opposition as wellas setting an example o social sustainability
  • Buildings – even green buildings – oten lacka close connection to their surrounding areaand community. Developing CommunityEngagement plans on a site-by-site basisallows projects to be sensitive to the needso the citizens and areas in which they areconstructed
  • ensures that negative impacts and publicopposition to projects will be minimized.
  • These plans should also include provisionsor the public use o private space, which haswell-documented success in San Franciscoand other cities. Across a portolio, investingin projects that positively contribute to thecommunity in which they are anchoredcreates a positive image, minimizes, risk, andimproves social sustainability
  • Table 3: Portfolio Characterization
  • Several categories contain RPI metricswhich investment managers could directlytie to value either through their indication o decreased operating expenses or indirectlyaid in obtaining higher rents, lower vacancy orselling the property at a higher price. Othercategories do not link directly to asset value,rather allow the investor to property determinethe correct ESG measures which must bein place in order to achieve maximum RPIbenets
  • Prudent portolio managers will look toenter into portolio wide contracts orcommissioning, eciency, renewables, andother measures to improve perormance,and use RPI metrics to track the value o improvements portolio wide
  • Environmental metrics are perceived as havingmore direct links to value, however socialmetrics are seen as helpul in characterizingprogress on advancing the social agenda o the und, while maintaining nancial returns
  • Environmental metrics are more malleablethan social metrics—in other words, mostenvironmental metrics can be improved overtime across the portolio, whereas socialmetrics are oten determined at the point o acquisition, and remain static (walkability, CBDproperties, etc.)
  • To ensure ease o collection and interpretationo the additional data, systems should be putinto place to ensure the metrics are trackedat each property and easily aggregated to theportolio level.
  • Portolio managers, property managers,and stakeholders will be able to engage ina dialogue regarding value created acrossthe triple bottom line through responsibleinvestment practices
  • CBRE Standardso Sustainability
  • There are many useul sotware tools on themarket- rom EnergyStar Portolio Manager(mentioned previously) to proprietary systemssuch as Tririga (www.tririga.com). Tririgacombines portolio management tools withportal views or property managers, andacilities management unctionality. Thishelps to integrate goals and establishcommon metrics rom asset to asset
  • In a changing and volatileinvestment environment, there is a uniqueand urgent need to better understandthe benets o making a commitment toresponsible property investing. The potentialor improvements at the portolio level isgreat, with benets accruing to investors,the industry, and society as a whole, and thepotential or these considerations to improvethe industry as a whole is even greater.
  • •Long-termvaluecreationthrough increases in assessed value o property •Greatlyreducedoperatingcostsbydriving environmental metrics •Minimizationofriskinseveralkeyareas during acquisition •Improvedpublicimageandinvestor condence •Improvedrelationshipbetweeninvestors and asset managers •Increasedvisibilityandtransparency•Demonstrationofvaluesinpractice
  •   26  The benets o committing to RPI arepotentially signicant, but a lack o uniormmetrics which can be adopted industry-wide has hindered the potential impact o RPI on the real estate sector.
Janine Shea

Page 2 The Biggest Trends in Business for 2013 | Entrepreneur.com - 0 views

www.entrepreneur.com/...224977-2

GroundUp Validation Technology Big_Data Entrepreneur articles Bus_Opportunity

shared by Janine Shea on 03 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Big Data is the vast (and ever-growing) stockpile of information too large for companies to store in-house--let alone analyze.
  • "For so long, we've focused on human-powered businesses, and now we're transforming into data-driven organizations that are bringing a level of customer centricity that we've never seen before,"
  • enture capital firms invested $2.47 billion in fields around big data in 2011, nearly 10 percent of all money distributed.
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  • "It's as sound a bet for us today as investing in PC-related technologies in 1981 or in internet-enabling technologies in 1994."
  • Currently healthcare providers throw 90 percent of that information away.
Janine Shea

Richard Florida - The Atlantic Cities - 0 views

www.theatlanticcities.com/...richard-florida

GroundUp Customer_Acquisition Richard_Florida Data blog Research Partners

shared by Janine Shea on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Janine Shea on 05 Dec 12
     
    Articles
Janine Shea

Members - GRESB | Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark - 0 views

gresb.com/members

Performance_Criteria Risk Sustainability 3BL Socially_Responsible_Investing Validation GroundUp

shared by Janine Shea on 29 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • To integrate sustainability metrics into their real estate investment strategies, institutional investors need to have qualitative and quantitative information on the sustainability performance of direct and indirect property investments. The GRESB Survey is the only sustainability benchmark that captures more than 50 data points to reflect the sustainability performance of an institutional investor’s real estate portfolio. These metrics are divided between seven sub-categories within the environmental and social dimensions, with an additional category added for members with property development activities which is not included in the total GRESB score. The weight of each dimension depends on how it may affect the risk-return profile of the investment portfolio and the individual metrics are scored to represent the relative impact to investors.
Janine Shea

The 15 Best Facebook Pages You've Ever Seen - 0 views

blog.hubspot.com/...ok-Pages-You-ve-Ever-Seen.aspx

GroundUp Marketing Brand Social_Media Facebook

shared by Janine Shea on 10 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Threadless also carries over important functionality from its core website, allowing users to vote for t-shirt designs and enter design contests. Threadless does a great job of creating a fantastic user experience that doesn't require the user to leave Facebook
  • The company also shares a ton of great images on its wall that generate a huge amount of engagement.
  • Zappos has an amazing like gate that sits next to a featured photo submitted by one of its fans. Users can also easily join the company's VIP program from the page.
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  • They have a like gate with a very compelling call-to-action. They also have a customer photo generator application that allows users to customize their Facebook profile picture with their favorite NHL team.
  • It uses social proof and data from Facebook to actually show why people like the Bing page
  • Beyond an awesome gift card app, Starbucks uses its page to run contests for seasonal products and also offers a slick store locator application.
  • The Burt's Bees Facebook Page uses a customer tab to aggregate the global online word-of-mouth buzz about its products in an interesting and unique way.
  • Sometimes the best way to build a community is through a shared cause.
  • interesting and engaging content. It shares a TON of great videos that are both educational and entertaining.
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