Lauren Pesa, partner, U.S. real estate sustainability, climate and equity leader at Deloitte, participated in a video interview in conjunction with Nareit’s REITwise: 2023 Law, Accounting & Finance Conference held March 21-23 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Pesa said the sustainability disclosures landscape is rapidly changing, due in part to regulator requirements, but also both the convergence and initiation of new standards.
She noted that some disclosures are common among the different reporting frameworks, including greenhouse gas disclosures, and that organizations should be aware of those commonalities.
“I highly recommend for organizations to think about the landscape wholistically and to kill [a few] birds at the same time,” she said. “It’s already going to be costly to comply, and it really could rachet up those costs if you don’t tackle the challenge comprehensively.”
Pesa said the SEC’s agenda indicates they will release their climate risk disclosures proposals in April.
“Companies really need to take a step back and say, ‘What are my no-regret actions? What are the things that I’m going to have to deal with regardless of whether of not the rule is final?’” Pesa noted.
She said that the SEC has been saying since 2010 that it’s expecting public companies to have more robust disclosures around climate-related risks, and regardless of if or when the rule is finalized, it is already issuing comment letters about that.