Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a critical component of understanding the performance of assets and portfolios. It enables property owners to set the performance of their assets in context and:

• Identify poorly performing assets that require improvement.
• Identify assets that out-perform and represent best practice or adopt innovative techniques.
• Set and monitor progress against targets.
• Compare against industry/best practice benchmarks, such as the Real Estate Environmental Benchmark.
• Communicate & report performance to wide range of stakeholders.

Sustainability benchmarking is a growing and complex area with numerous industry initiatives and frameworks available to choose from depending on the level of assessment  - building, portfolio, fund or company; and scope -.design, operation or management. There are numerous issues to be considered, such as:

• The scope and availability of data.
• The most appropriate metrics and KPIs to use.
• Which factors can and should be normalised.
• What to compare performance against.

Our Work

To support other organisations in their own benchmarking journey we have produced the Sustainability Benchmarking Toolkit, which shares our own experience of sustainability benchmarking and proposes some principles for best practice.

The Toolkit:

• Provides an introduction to Sustainability Benchmarking.
• Identifies the issues and challenges in Operational Sustainability Benchmarking.
• Establishes Best-Practice Principles for Sustainability Benchmarking.

We have also developed the industry leading Real Estate Environmental Benchmark (REEB).