With the rise of new reporting frameworks and standards, most sectors are now being asked to disclose the impact of their activities on nature. Drawing on the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) guidance, GRESB has recently introduced a new biodiversity and nature-related strategy indicator - RM7 - as part of the 2025 GRESB Real Estate Assessment. For many organisations in the real estate sector, this is the first time they have been asked to disclose on nature as part of an ESG framework. 

What is GRESB RM7?

RM7 is a currently unscored indicator that asks participants to describe their organisational strategy concerning biodiversity and interactions with nature, specifically with regards to how they consider dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities related to natural capital.

As part of this indicator, organisations will be asked to:

• Explain any relevant biodiversity or nature strategy at the corporate / portfolio level
• Identify dependencies on natural features
• Identify the impacts that assets have on ecosystems
• Evaluate potential risks and opportunities associated with nature
• Discuss how these considerations are integrated into strategic decision-making

Considerations of impacts and dependencies on nature are crucial in real estate due to the large levels of water, land, and material use associated with buildings, as well as the high levels of pollution produced during construction.

Below, we outline a step-by-step process for starting to disclose on GRESB RM7.

1. Locate your interface with nature

Begin by understanding where your assets are located, and check whether the location of the assets intersects with any areas of high biodiversity. Consider the following:

• Where are your direct operations?
• What are your organisation’s activities by sector and value chain, and which of these are associated with larger dependencies or impacts on nature?
• Of these sectors, where are they located, and are they located in ecologically sensitive locations?
• Which locations are located closest to the most sensitive ecological areas?

There are many tools available to do this, for example, NatureAlpha’s Geoverse. 

2. Identify your impacts and dependencies

Based on the locations and sectors of your assets, the next step is to understand how the operations of your assets are impacted and depend on nature. 

• What are the direct and indirect dependencies your assets have? For example, raw materials (water, timber, etc), land for activities, and surrounding forests that reduce air pollution
• What direct and indirect impacts do your assets have on the ecosystems that surround them? For instance, resource depletion in surrounding areas from construction, emissions from energy consumption, product disposal, and pollution

In order to evaluate the impacts and dependencies, you will need to gather quantitative data or use a data provider to provide metrics on the levels of impact and dependencies at each site; then use industry materiality matrices (e.g., ENCORE or the enhanced materiality matrix designed by NatureAlpha for more granular insights) to link your operations to specific impacts and dependencies.

3. Evaluate your nature-related impacts and dependencies

Once you have identified the impacts and dependencies associated with your assets, you can begin to consider their scale and scope.

• Are there hotspots of high impact and dependencies?
• Are there sectors that are more material than others?
• Is there one category of dependencies that makes up most of the organisation-level dependencies?

These impacts and dependencies will come with risks and opportunities that need to be considered when you disclose.

4. Understand the risks and opportunities

Your interface, dependencies and impact on nature will create both risks and opportunities, such as:

• Short-term physical risks: flooding or erosion due to extreme weather
• Long-term physical risks: soil deterioration leading to changes in building surfaces
• Policy risks: shifting regulatory landscapes surrounding sustainable construction
• Reputational risks: investor concerns about ecosystem impacts

Opportunities will be more likely to come as a result of changes in construction trends and practices, for example, adding roof gardens to increase shade and reduce cooling costs, using sustainable building materials to increase market reputation and alignment with regulations.

5. Summarise your approach to nature

To summarise your investigation for your GRESB response, RM7 requires an overview of your biodiversity strategy, this could include, for example:

• A map view or summary of hotspots of locations in ecologically sensitive areas, as seen for UBS Group in NatureAlpha’s Geoverse

• A discussion of the largest nature impacts and dependencies at a company level, but also at an asset level (i.e. the most impactful assets). Other metrics could also be used to further explore the company’s activities, for example, Footprint metrics or those considering policy - as seen below for UBS Group, again in NatureAlpha’s Geoverse. Comparing scores to other companies in the same sector is also useful to understand company impact in context.

• The risks and opportunities associated with these impacts and dependencies, an example structure seen below.

• Any actions taken currently to address these issues, or targets for when you will have considered action to take on your nature-related impacts and dependencies

• A description of how you will achieve or measure these targets and / or actions

A key component of GRESB RM7 will be engagement with the management practices at specific sites, ensuring that site-level assessment is carried out to fully understand all possible impacts and dependencies.