The European Public Real Estate Association (Epra) has launched a new drive to establish common standards in sustainability reporting for listed real estate companies across Europe.

Speaking on the first day of Epra's annual conference in Amsterdam, Gareth Lewis, Epra director of finance, said that the aim is to extend the association's Best Practices Recommendations (BPRs) to sustainability reporting in the same way that its financial reporting BPRs have become the benchmark for transparency for property firms and investors.

'We are aiming to build on the initial foundation work done by Epra's sustainability reporting committee and intensify our efforts to get consistent and comparable standards into the regular workflow of property firms,' Lewis said. 'Our ultimate goal is to achieve a consensus around a clear unified set of key performance indicators, common language, and methodology.'

Epra aims to agree draft protocols with members by the end of 2010. The association plans to have the first set of sustainability BPRs launched and published in September 2011.