Chris Cayten, managing director of CodeGreen Solutions—a sponsor of Nareit’s ESG JumpStart: 2023 Virtual Class Series—participated in a video interview in conjunction with the event.
Cayten said that when it comes to choosing the most suitable ESG reporting for your organization, REITs should look at what their peers are doing, what their stakeholders are asking for, and what data they have available.
“[Also,] the types of assets that they have in their portfolio really can impact the types of data that they’ll have available to them and what really makes sense in terms of reporting,” he added.
Cayten noted that the sustainability industry for real estate evolves very rapidly. He said the potential climate disclosure regulations from the SEC as well as the proliferation of building performance standards from city to city are two of the top issues that REITs should be focused on in the year ahead.
Cayten added that CodeGreen Solutions has helped REITs develop sustainability programs since its inception 15 years ago.
“We’ve evolved from working building to building with sustainability features in trophy assets—now to working with entire portfolios from the high-level strategy all the way through asset level intervention,” he said.