The Multifamily Impact Update
A monthly jam session with industry experts from the multifamily impact community
Dear Readers:
Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter! Starting this month, weโre consolidating our email newsletters into one streamlined platformโthe โAffordable Housing Handbookโ on Substack. This move will help us manage our growing subscriber base, deliver more great content, and importantly, reduce inbox clutter by eliminating duplicate subscriptions. (You also have the option to opt out of emails and receive notifications via the Substack app.) Going forward, the newsletter will include bi-monthly deep dive insights from industry experts and our monthly Multifamily Impact Update.
We value your time and appreciate your insight. So, thanks for reading what we write. This monthโs Impact Update is below and we hope you enjoy it!
Bob Simpson
President and CEO
GRESB: 15 Years of Assessment Innovation
One of the challenges in assessing impact can be determining what is of true financial consequence, or material. To ensure that the linkage is front and center, the impact principles we outline in the Multifamily Impact Frameworkโข benefit not only residents and communities, but also investors and financial institutions. We maintain our focus on the practices known to drive impact and the business case.
GRESB - the global company that operates an annual sustainability assessment for standing real estate investments, real estate projects in development, infrastructure funds, and infrastructure assets - has been leading the way in ESG and sustainability performance evaluation in real estate since 2009. Over that time, they have continually evolved their product offerings to respond to the market, recognizing that different industry players have different needs, risks, and opportunities.
Debt providers, though an absolutely critical player in any capital stack, are often one step removed from the impact and ESG data that equity investors expect, and that can affect their businesses. To address this challenge, GRESB has launched the GRESB Real Estate Lender Initiative. This new initiative seeks to demonstrate how ESG best practices can drive loan and portfolio financial performance.
In the conversation below, we speak with GRESBโs Dan Winters about the new initiative and its significance to real estate lenders. We also gain perspective from Megan Saunders of MIC member Kayne Andersonโs real estate group on her firmโs participation in the Lender Roundtable.
At MIC, we too have been hearing nuanced and important insights from lenders, in particular our CDFI members. We look forward to deepening this listening as we launch our MIC Communities, members-only groups focused on specific areas of practice, over the coming weeks. Members, please keep an eye on your inbox with more information.
To doing well, doing good, and doing more,
Rachel Mavrothalasitis
Chief Operating Officer
How GRESBโs New Initiative Benefits Lenders
Dan Winters is Senior Director โ Market Development & Strategic Initiatives for GRESB, the global ESG benchmark for private equity real estate and infrastructure portfolios.
Megan Saunders is Senior Managing Director of Sustainability for KayneโฏAnderson'sโฏreal estate group.
Dan, can you please describe the GRESB Real Estate Lender Initiative? What is it, who is involved, and how does it work?
Dan: The GRESB Real Estate Lender Initiative brings together industry experts from the GRESB member base seeking to elevate global best business practice by integrating ESG-oriented risk factors into borrower underwriting, asset due diligence, loan origination, and loan portfolio monitoring processes.
Have news to share? Send your links to MultifamilyImpactCouncil@thesmartagency.com and weโll spread the word in this newsletter and on our LinkedIn page.
Thank you to our members!
Weโd like to take this opportunity to thank the following members of the Multifamily Impact Council for their ongoing support of our organization and its mission:
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