Sustainability reporting advisory practice R4 Advisors announced today the launch of PRI Sprint, a technology-enabled ESG reporting solution for signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) who invest in real assets, including real estate, infrastructure and agriculture.

R4 works with clients to drive investment outperformance through the development of ESG strategies for real assets. According to the firm, a critical step in strategy development is ESG real asset reporting, particularly PRI Climate Change reporting based on the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Tania Caceres, Managing Director, R4 Advisory said:

“The value of being a PRI Signatory has never been greater. But the challenge of continuing to do well in PRI reporting has also never been greater for real asset investors.”

According to Caceres, substantial changes to the PRI report require investors to identify the opportunities and risks from Climate Change embedded in their portfolios, and to test the resilience of investment strategies through scenario analysis. Last year, when signatories were asked to report on climate change, but the results were not scored, only 26% of investment managers provided answers. While software developers and securities index providers offer solutions for stock and bond investors to analyze portfolios and answer PRI Climate Change questions, these technologies often are not relevant to direct real estate, infrastructure and agriculture assets due to private market opacity and the unique nature of each asset.

Catherine Ann Marshall, Principal, R4 Advisory, said:

“We have developed a strategy for success for real asset investors by using our knowledge of the commonalities of each asset class and capturing that in technology. We take the output from the software and use our knowledge and experience to lead workshops that deliver answers and results.

“PRI is asking Signatories to adopt best practices in ESG reporting on Climate Change. Soon TCFD-aligned reporting will be what every investor wants, and what regulators will mandate.  We encourage PRI Signatories to get ahead of the curve by doing well on reporting Climate Change risks and opportunities this year.”

R4 announced a webinar to be held on March 16^th, “Optimize Your PRI 2021 Reporting,” to support the introduction of PRI Sprint.