NAREIM Sustainability Meeting: Presentations, poll results & attendee list

March 8, 2023

During the NAREIM Sustainability meeting, members discussed a range of opportunities and challenges surrounding sustainability including net zero efficiency and resilience; how to staff sustainability departments; the business case for ESG and lessons around improving data capture.

• Click here to view the agenda.

• Click below to view presentation slides and poll results from the meeting.

• The attendee list can be accessed here. 

Presentation: Net Zero Efficiency & Resilience: Process, Assessments & Tracking

Discussing what managers are using to conduct asset level carbon assessments, building checklists for what it takes to get assets net zero aligned and how they scale the tracking and integrate that into traditional business procedures.

• Anne Peck, Vice President, Head of ESG+R, TA Realty

• Brooke Pottish, ESG Coordinator — Asset Management, New York Life Real Estate Investors

• Chang Liu, Vice President, RE Tech Advisors

Presentation: Lessons from the Trenches: Improving Sustainability Data Capture session, led by:

• Brittany Ryan, Director, Responsible Investing, Nuveen Real Estate

• Jim Landau, Head of ESG, MetLife Investment Management 

Group discussion: Tenant data 

Discussing establishing a baseline for stronger owner to tenant engagement, strategies to better engage utility providers, and methods to boost communication between LP and GP expectations. Speakers included:

• Michael Daschle, Senior Vice President, Sustainability, Brookfield Properties

• Madeline Robertson, Director, Advantage Solutions, Greystar

• Stephanie Grayson, Cambio

Member Poll on staffing and resources

Click here for the poll results from the How to Strategically Resource & Staff Sustainability Departments session, led by: 

• Hannah Tillmann, Vice President, Sustainability, Berkshire Residential

• Cassandra McFadden, Vice President & Global Head of Sustainability, Cortland

Ranking: The most outsourced ESG roles - and those retained in-house

Roundtable discussion focused on which ESG functions managers typically outsource and retain in-house. The key roles outsourced by members focused on data collection and management as well as reporting to benchmarks such as GRESB and PRI. In comparison, almost all members agreed they retained ESG strategy in-house along with client reporting and answer investor DDQs. 

• Click here to download the full ranking of outsourced roles and retained roles in ESG

Attendee list: Click here to view the attendee list. 

Recap:

During the Sustainability meeting, we highlighted an ESG consultant directory provided by members. The directory provided the vendors and consultants used by managers on ESG - in both specialist and generalist category. To access the directory, click here