Conference Agenda

With the global implementation of disclosure requirements in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting for companies, there are growing concerns about whether all initiatives have substance or are ‘greenwashing’ or ‘value washing’ attempts. These concerns are caused mainly by the lack of a consistent, reliable measure, especially for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Our main objective is to (1) create a measure to identify REITs’ ESG initiatives from their company reports and (2) examine how industry experts perceive/evaluate such information by measuring their sentiment toward REITs’ ESG initiatives embedded in real estate industry news articles in the UK using machine learning models. Specifically, we will examine the effects of sentiment on REITs’ stock price performance (i.e., investors’ reactions to ESG sentiment). We found that the ESG sentiment calculated by news content is positively associated with REITs’ excess return especially social sentiment. However, only the E sentiment embedded in the title contributes more to REITs’ expected excess return. Neither the social nor governance component of ESG attention has a significant association with REITs’ expected excess return measures. Our project will provide new evidence on the impacts of REITs’ ESG disclosure activities.

Sustainability is a strategic imperative for all industries due to regulatory mandates, investor needs, and societal expectations. Considering that the building sector accounts for a relatively large share of China's energy consumption and CO2 emissions, the climate impact of the real estate sector is also bound to be of concern to all parties. With China's ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060, China's role is crucial. This paper focuses on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) development in real estate sector in China with individual pillar analysis in disclosure content and performance. It reveals key issues for real estate companies’ sustainable development and investment opportunities for individual and institutional investors. The future real estate industry is suggested to pay further attention to environmental protection, green finance, sustainable development, and ethical management, so as to achieve the dual development of economic and social benefits.

In recent years, Japan has seen an increase in disaster prevention activities and efforts to maintain landscapes for tourists. Particularly in rural areas, expectations for tourism to stimulate economic activity within the community are increasing. In upscale residential areas with a high percentage of owner-occupied houses, residents have a high awareness of landscape maintenance and are enthusiastic about community activities, including financial contributions. Meanwhile, fieldwork related to community activities is also being introduced in education. In addition, an increasing number of companies in urban areas have established CSR promotion offices to promote participation in community activities. In this way, the importance of community activities is being reevaluated not only among the elderly, who have been considered to have a high participation rate in community activities, but also among various generations. Also, women had been major players in unpaid volunteer activities. With the increase in the percentage of women in paid employment as well as men, attention has been paid to the changes in the bearers of community activities with respect to gender differences. Therefore, this paper analyzed the impacts of individual attributes such as gender and age on community activities such as landscape maintenance with a nationwide questionnaire survey.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives have received increasing attention from international real estate investors and stakeholders in recent years. This study builds upon relatively small literature to consider the effect of institutional frameworks on REITs' ESG activities. Specifically, this study examines whether REITs operating in an institutional framework with stricter carbon pricing regulations (i.e. emissions trading system (ETS) and carbon tax) are more likely to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in a difference-in-difference framework. Using 927 REITs rated by MSCI from 30 countries, our empirical results show that REITs domiciled in a country with an ETS exhibit higher environmental responsibility. The finding suggests that stricter regulations resulted in REITs paying closer attention to their CSR activities, particularly environmental initiatives. The results also reveal that REITs take advantage of opportunities to engage in green property initiatives due to the heightened regulatory environment of ETS. However, no comparable evidence is documented for the carbon tax, another carbon pricing mechanism. Our robustness checks further confirm the role of institutional frameworks. The implications of the findings have been highlighted.