March 2024 E-News

Common Ground

OSCRE Council of 100: Next Stop Chicago

OSCRE’s Council of 100 meets in Chicago on April 16^th with an innovation-packed discussion that includes Artificial Intelligence (AI), expanding reporting requirements on real estate’s environmental impact and the data integration challenges faced by organizations. The program, “Beyond Boundaries: Advancing Data Innovation” brings senior leaders together to discuss major data management issues that impact fund managers, corporate owners, occupiers and the external business partners who work with them. What makes these gatherings different from others? The day’s discussion leads to development of a roadmap for an action plan to address them. Speakers include change leaders from MetLife, LaSalle Investment, MRI Software, JLL, Brookfield Properties, CBRE and others.

If you’re interested in finding out how you can participate in the Council of 100 event, email us info@oscre.org today.     

New Water Data Standard Scope Completed

In just 30 days, the organizations participating in the OSCRE water data standard workgroup have completed the scoping phase of the project. As with the Energy Data Standard published late last year, we now move forward with the development phase of the standard. 

Participating organizations decided to develop 5 use cases for water. They are very similar to the new energy standard, focusing primarily on data collection and reporting with data from multiple functions and business partners. By implementing the water data standard, the participants in the project identified business benefits in 5 areas, including:



• Increase revenues by attracting investment based on higher ESG ratings that include water and more effective allocation to users for water use
• Reduce costs by improving analytics for capital planning related to water systems and assessing costs and benefits of water conservation
• Lower risk by avoiding financial penalties for not reporting accurately in multiple jurisdictions, and provide better information for insurance underwriting 
• Improve operations by advance preparation to meet reporting requirements across jurisdictions
• Incorporate data standards into an effective data strategy, achieving better data integration from multiple sources

Please contact us at info@oscre.org if you’re interested in participating in the development phase of this new data standard project.

A Software Perspective on Artificial Intelligence

In OSCRE’s March Innovation Forum, senior leaders from 4 software firms - Cherre, Dealpath,

MRI Software and Yardi, – shared their perspectives on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Click here to listen to the session. Some of the perspectives they shared include:

• AI functionality has been around for some time, such as machine learning around lease abstracting
• Improved analytics will be a priority in the next 2-3 years
• Effective data management is crucial when implementing AI
• Data standards will play a central role in enabling AI
• Skills to implement AI are lagging development of the technology

OSCRE's Next Innovation Forum:

SEC Reporting Requirements Update

Webinar: Thursday, April 25, 2024

11 AM - 12 PM Eastern Time

No registration fee required

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has finalized its rules for disclosing climate-related information starting in 2025. This affects most major stakeholders in investment and corporate real estate, as well as their business partners. Even though Scope 3 has been removed from the SEC requirements, it’s still a requirement for other reporting purposes.

There will also be pressure to run ESG data through an assurance process just as with financial data. This will be very difficult for organizations that have not yet implemented internal controls over sustainability data. This is where a data strategy that includes energy, emissions, and data standards come into play.

Join us on April 25^th when the panelists will address the following aspects of the SEC requirements.

• What are the new SEC requirements and what’s the timeline for compliance?
• What are leading companies doing to get ready and what challenges are they facing?
• How can organizations meet SEC requirements along with other reporting needs, e.g., GRESB, local laws/state laws.
• What are the implications of higher levels of assurance relating to compliance?
• What role can and should data standards play in meeting all these requirements?

Last month’s polling question focused on data management in the residential property sector. 25% of those who responded said they have no focus on this sector, although we expect that number may increase as organizations are re-assessing the asset mix in their portfolios with a sharp focus on current positions in the office sector. More than 22% of respondents noted integrating systems and sources of data as their greatest challenge and an equal number replied that getting internal alignment on data priorities and standards was their greatest challenge. The former is a focus on integrating systems, while the latter is a people-driven function that starts with the tone at the top of the organization. Preparing to meet reporting requirements came in at just over 19%, an indicator that the near future mandates for reporting haven’t necessarily hit the critical point as many take effect in 2025 or later.

Most puzzling is the low number of responses (11%) for data aggregation for better analytics. Data analytics are a valuable contributor to business decisions and future resource allocation, which indicates the respondents aren’t currently fully utilizing this resource. Providing an opportunity to respond this question 12 months from now may have a very different breakdown of responses, and thanks to each of the individuals wo took the time to complete this survey and share their perspective.