(J11) Exceeding ESG Commitments with LEED for Communities

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing has offered the possibility to create a Green Swan for the real-estate developments. When it got integrated into the investing approach for companies it brought the financial aspect to create the business case for sustainability as responsible investment but also a resilient investment. Additionally, corporates, developers, real-estate companies and investors have made aggressive ESG commitments, like net-zero and equity for all stakeholders. There exists a monumental confusion on how to meet and exceed these obligations! They are asking: How can we translate these into the real-estate portfolios that are existing and new and can be developed lowering the climate risk with its processes?

LEED for Communities rating system requires district, neighborhood and community scale projects to report on energy, emissions, water, waste, transportation, social equity, and quality of life within performance prerequisites. These prerequisites allow projects to inventory their performance, continuously measuring and using it in ESG reporting.

Additionally, various credits and requirements offer strategies and guidance on catalyzing continuous improvement on each of these parameters and their ESG priorities. Data and documentation submitted in support of the certification process get verified by the third-party expert reviewers at GBCI. Thus, LEED for Communities rating system offers a credible framework for corporates, developers, real-estate companies and investors to navigate complexities of ESG issues, make improvements and support decisions.

Developers will clearly outline how their organization established a concrete sustainability strategy, then structured and aligned actions, initiatives, challenges, and commitments. That strategy allowed them to understand the needs and expectations of all of their stakeholders, including the communities they serve. They have utilized LEED for Communities rating system, which gave them the opportunity to validate their sustainability priorities of large projects, embrace new strategies and technologies to accomplish commitments towards comprehensive sustainability.

These sustainability experts will be offering various approaches of implementing LEED strategies to portfolios and communities to attract investors through high performance and demonstrate the business case for green investment.

They used LEED for Communities certification as a transformation tool and a catalyst to make better and more conscious decisions. It allowed to them to incorporate policies, incentives, and programs to strengthen the skills and capacities of various departments within the company and brought them on one table and thus achieved the development of projects with high sustainability performance.