ESG and Decarbonization: Achieving Ultimate Success in Industrial
Originally published on June 8, 2023, by Kathryn Hamilton, CAE for NAIOP.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and decarbonization initiatives can yield significant advances across the industry, from the important climate benefits to improved investor and community relations. While these are not new concepts – the first solar panels date back to 1954 – they are fresher to commercial real estate as owners and developers evaluate how to retrofit existing properties and incorporate elements of sustainability into their projects.
A panel of commercial real estate ESG leaders took to the stage at I.CON East this week to share how their companies have embraced these goals and moved them forward to benefit both their businesses and the communities where their properties are located.
“There’s a big drive to decarbonize in every industry, with companies tracking greenhouse gas emissions and making disclosures” said David Crist, CEM, director of sustainability with ARCO Design/Build. “Scope 3 [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s forthcoming guidelines on measuring emissions that are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by the reporting organization, but that the organization indirectly affects in its value chain] will have a big impact but is yet unknown. At ARCO, we’re looking at embodied carbon, or the emissions from the materials going into the building. Ninety percent of a building’s emissions are embodied, and the other 10% are operational.”