RiskFootprint
Dr. Leonard Berry, RiskFootprint Co-founder and Chief Science Officer stated: “Businesses with real assets in the United States have been challenged in recent years with rising frequency and impact of floods, natural hazards, extreme weather, and climate change. Since 1980, the annual frequency of billion-dollar disasters in the US from catastrophic flooding, western wildfires, and devastating tornado outbreaks has more than doubled. The need for true site intelligence has never been more critical.”
The assessment of physical climate risks has taken center stage in the areas of commercial, multi-family, and industrial real estate. There’s a rapidly growing demand for technology and consulting that allows CRE to get a better handle on hazards and resilience for portfolio risk management, new acquisition due diligence, property management, and loan and insurance underwriting. CRE stakeholders must increasingly evaluate and disclose current and future physical climate risks in regulatory and quasi-regulatory programs. These include, but are not limited to, the Task Force of Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and align assessments with existing environmental due diligence processes like the ASTM’s Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) and the Property Condition Assessment (PCA).
Others developing new hazard assessment standards and guidance include government and non-profit organizations such as: the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Environmental Bankers Association, US Green Building Council, and the International Finance Corporation. These initiatives will both clarify stakeholder expectations and cause rapid expansion of the online hazard assessment market.
RiskFootprint President, Albert Slap said, “As commercial, industrial, and multi-family real estate market growth accelerates post-COVID, our top-tier CRE clients are demanding ever-increasing breadth, depth, and accuracy from real property hazard assessments to meet their due diligence needs. We deliver intelligence that is a true warning about the reality of the risks associated with a site.”
RiskFootprint is the only SaaS solution that also provides advanced advisory services, such as building-specific, vulnerability assessments, value-at-risk estimates (VAR), and cost-benefit analyses, all of which help clients make better decisions.
Concluded Slap, “Once a CRE client decides to make a risk mitigation investment, we bring in vetted architects, engineers and other experts as ‘owners’ reps’ to help them successfully and cost-effectively implement resilience measures. Our risk assessment is the starting point to make properties safer, more sustainable, and resilient.”
