Seven different Canadian companies have emerged as 2025 GRESB sector leaders in the Americas region, denoting top scores within various categories of property types and ownership structures in the annual global assessment of ESG performance in commercial real estate portfolios. As well, an asset manager headquartered in the United States earns the accolade for a property fund portfolio made up of Canadian properties.

“GRESB sector leaders set the pace for the industry, showing how strong fundamentals, effective management and measurable performance can create long-term value and drive progress for the market,” says GRESB chief executive officer Sébastien Roussotte.

The sector leader designation is awarded to the portfolio that attains the top score within each property category, and to other portfolios with scores that are within one point of that top performance. In the Americas, those leaders are drawn from a total of 567 reporting entities that include direct real estate, third-party managers, property funds and real estate investment trusts (REITs) spread across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Columbia.

This year, three Canadian REITs — Primaris REIT, RioCan REIT and SmartCentres REIT — share Americas sector leader status for listed retail portfolios.

On the non-listed side of the equation:

• Crown Realty Partners’ core fund is the sector leader for office portfolios;
• Fengate Asset Management’s commercial income fund is the sector leader for diversified office/industrial portfolios; and
• Cadillac Fairview Corporation is the sector leader for diversified office/retail portfolios.

U.S.-based Harrison Street Asset Management is an Americas leader for diversified portfolios for its Canada alternative fund, and Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada/BentallGreenOak is the Americas sector leader for diversified real estate development.

This is the sixth time, including every year since 2020, that Cadillac Fairview has been an Americas sector leader. “Our success in GRESB enhances our credibility, demonstrating that prioritizing sustainability and responsible management can contribute to long-term value for our stakeholders,” says Sal Iacono, the company’s president and chief executive officer.

Cadillac Fairview and Crown Realty are the only two Canadian companies to achieve a GRESB five-star rating for achieving scores in the top quintile, or 20 per cent, across the entire database of 2,382 reporting entities. This year, those scores ranged between 97.7 and 89.5 out of a possible 100 points — well above the overall average of 79.

Crown Realty actually hit that threshold twice, earning five-star ratings for both its core fund office portfolio and corporate core fund mixed-use portfolio. The company has been in the five-star ranks every year since 2019.

“This is a meaningful achievement given the distinguished group of international peers Crown is benchmarked against,” observes Tom Idzal, head of Americas for GRESB. “Being named a regional sector leader and achieving a five-star rating for the seventh consecutive year is a testament to Crown’s unwavering focus on sustainability and transparency.”

The Oceania region, comprised of Australia and New Zealand, has the most impressive profile in the five-star quintile. More than one-third, or 45 of 132, of its reporting entities achieved the top ranking this year.