5 Ways CRE Professionals Are Working to Mitigate Climate Change
Earth Day seems like a good occasion to look at ways the real estate industry can reduce the negative impacts of buildings on the natural environment. After nearly 15 years of working to integrate climate-friendly policies into the construction and day-to-day operation of assets, many real estate companies have gained ground, though they concede there is still much work to be done.
LoopNet has compiled a series of articles that profile a variety of ways in which the industry is responding to this enormous challenge. They include leveraging the simple concept of walking; setting clear environmental policies at the corporate level; being proactive and inclusive with vulnerable populations living in areas at risk of sea level rise; measuring the carbon dioxide emitted when buildings are constructed; and installing green roofs that generate a myriad of environmental benefits.
1. Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Practices Gain Ground in CRE
Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) policies are applicable across all businesses from law firms to food and beverage providers. But for the CRE industry, mitigating negative environmental impacts from the construction, operation and maintenance of buildings is especially weighty. According to experts, current opportunities to bring about meaningful change relative to ESG involves working with suppliers to reduce carbon output along the supply chain; embracing the opportunity to create a post-carbon world as “the business opportunity of a lifetime;” leveraging the increased awareness about ESG issues among tenants, investors, employees and stockholders; and recognizing that growing demand for “green” investments is leading to a lower cost of capital.
2. What is Embodied Carbon in Buildings?
Embodied carbon in buildings refers to the greenhouse gases (mostly carbon dioxide) emitted from the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance and disposal of building materials. It is a comprehensive measure of the carbon emitted throughout the “life cycle” of every material — from concrete to carpets — that goes into the base building construction and interior build-out of a building. This relatively new metric may well become mandatory in the near future.
3. Why Building Owners Are Going From ‘Gray to Green’ Roofs
Green roofs have swiftly gone from a hippie movement in northern European cities to an international infrastructure imperative, and there are many ways building owners can leverage their rooftop space for environmental benefits. There are few building standards around this emerging concept so associations like Green Roofs for Healthy Cities are working to educate professionals and establish benchmarks.
4. Property Owners Engage in the Fight Against Rising Sea Levels
Bottom-up solutions generated by the people, businesses and property owners that stand to be directly affected by sea-level rise are significantly more effective than top-down approaches, according to one New Orleans-based expert who also believes that municipalities must carry out planning for catastrophic events like flooding. Somewhat surprisingly, he noted that the significant impacts of sea-level rise are not limited to coastal areas. He cited high climate-related risks in West Virginia and Kentucky, for instance, due to inland river flooding, mudslides and massive rivers overflowing their banks.
5. Understanding Your Property’s Walk Score
Walk Score is a method for calculating a rating (from zero to 100) for a given address, based on the walking distance from that address to a variety of key amenities that a typical person needs on an average day. Originally conceived to help individuals find apartments to rent, in what the founders of the metric deemed “walkable” neighborhoods, the measure today is applied to all addresses and property types in the U.S and Canada and Walk Score has expanded beyond individual address scores to rank neighborhoods, as well as entire cities.
