24
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) published a new Construction and Real Estate Sector Supplement (CRESS) on September 22, 2011, launching a reporting framework that should make it possible to measure, monitor, and report sustainability within the green building sector.
The new supplement, which was developed in consultation with volunteers from construction and real estate, labour, non-governmental organisations, and academia, covers issues such as:
- Product and service labeling, including building and materials certification;
- Building energy intensity, water intensity and CO2 emissions relating to buildings in use;
- Management and remediation of contaminated land;
- Labor health and safety issues when operating in insecure environments and
- Contractor/subcontractor labor supply chain issues.
Jones Lang LaSalle was the principal technical advisor. Their Lead Director, Upstream Sustainability Services, Julie Hirigoyen, had this to say at the launch: “The launch of CRESS should bring about a much more level playing field in sustainability reporting practices amongst real estate and construction companies.”
With transparency the main focus of the CRESS, the Supplement contains guidelines that are focused on three types of Standard Disclosures, including:
- Strategy and Profile: Disclosures that cover an organization’s strategy, composition and governance, to set the overall context for understanding organizational performance.
- Management Approach: Disclosures that cover how an organization addresses a given set of topics in order to provide context for understanding performance in a specific area (including policy, target setting, monitoring and training of employees).
- Performance Indicators: Indicators that elicit comparable information on the economic, environmental and social performance of the organization.
GRI is a network-based organization that creates comprehensive sustainability frameworks used worldwide. Their Reporting Framework aims to set out principles and Performance Indicators that organizations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance.
