One no-cost strategy to supercharge your ESG Program in 2022
To understand your opportunities, you have to understand the current condition of your portfolio, a simple step that so many programs skip
While 2021 may have had a few improvements over 2020, it has been a challenging year, but like any other year, when the ball drops at midnight, those of us in ESG will start thinking about data. Where is it, how much of it do we have? Where did we have coverage, how did our properties perform? Did we meet our reduction goals? Do we have a plan for the coming year?
In the world of sustainability, the end of the year marks an opportunity to begin analyzing last year’s utility consumption performance. But while we wait for those final bills to come in, there is additional data to be gathered as well.
Particularly for those organizations reporting to GRESB, there is a significant amount of property attribute data that needs to be gathered, and now is the perfect time to start gathering that data. (Even if you are not reporting to GRESB, it is still a good idea to start gathering and tracking this attribute data.)
Do you know how many of your properties have completed LED retrofits in the past year? In the past three years? What if the retrofit was completed in-house, not part of a formal retrofit? How are you capturing this data? Do you even know if it happened?
What about Green Certifications? How many buildings are LEED-certified? Did you obtain an Energy Star Certification? Do you have properties that are due for re-certification? Has everyone reported their data if in a data reporting jurisdiction? What about performance data reporting, the number of cities with significant fines for failure to track and improve your building performance. Last year we saw Denver join the list, alongside DC, St Louis, New York, Boston, Montgomery County, MD, and the states of Colorado and Washington.
This time of year, a comprehensive building attribute survey can be a valuable tool to understand the condition of your portfolio and where opportunities may exist.
Take water use as an example. If you have a portfolio of 25 properties, do you know which ones have irrigation? Of those, do any have controllers? Are those controllers internet-connected and actively able to distribute water based on actual soil conditions? If you have controllers, how many are at each property? Has an audit been completed to verify the systems are not leaking? What if you have 50 properties? 500?
If you have a 2022 goal of reducing water consumption, such a survey may provide valuable data around the current state of your portfolio.
In addition to portfolio performance goals, such surveys also provide data to document property-specific GRESB goals. Do you have sustainability policies? Has each property received them? Have they been trained on them? This same survey process can provide documentation for these purposes as well.
Obviously, a survey is only valuable if the data collected is accurate and if the data requested is actually received. Sometimes this will require old-fashioned reminding properties that you still need their data. There are several strategies available to encourage participation. Examples include providing incentives for early completion, perhaps a gift card to a coffee shop, or entry into a contest. Competition can also be a motivator, particularly in organizations that have regional offices. Have you ever asked someone in Boston how they feel about New York? Leaderboards can call out which region is leading and which ones still have work to do.
Some key considerations when motivating people to complete your survey:
Make sure that the importance of the input is clear. While physical incentives are nice, people want to know that their opinions matter. Make sure that the importance of the survey is clear and explain how it can help the organization.
Make sure that you express appreciation for their participation in collecting the survey information. People are busy; time is a valuable commodity. While it may be important for you to collect the data, you need to ensure that those who provide the data realize that you appreciate their sharing the information.
Provide meaningful feedback from the survey. Feedback can be staged to include feedback on the progress of collecting information, but it also is important to provide feedback from the results of their participation. Make their participation meaningful by providing key findings and useful information back to the participants. Perfect opportunity for an award…..
While there are many ways to motivate properties to get the data completed, in the end, the data provided can prove invaluable insight as you track the current state of your portfolio and potentially uncover opportunities to make improvements.
The physical attribute survey process needs to become part of your sustainability program's regular data collection cadence. While it is true, some aspects may remain static, our properties are always evolving and will change from year to year. Often those improvements are made locally, and without the survey, you may have no insight into recognizing that something has changed within your portfolio.
The same process can also be leveraged to build on the results from the previous year’s GRESB or other annual reporting processes. After participation in these assessments, there is often an opportunity to review and identify where improvements can be made. The survey questions can be adjusted to help address these areas of opportunity.
Resiliency provides a good example of using the survey to provide a stronger annual reporting response. Have your properties identified shocks or stressors that could impact their business operations? Are they located in an area with a potential for wildfires, floods, hurricanes, etc.? What have they done to mitigate those risks? Do they have generators? Are the generators tested, and what is the physical location of the generator? Can its effectiveness be compromised in a flood, for example? These and many other questions can provide a wealth of data around the current portfolio’s ability to mitigate the risk in this case posed by climate-related business interruption. It’s also not a bad way to gently remind people of performance expectations by politely asking, you know we have a policy, and you have read it, right?
A final thought is how will you collect this data? Is this as simple as an email survey? Perhaps there is an online data collection service that is better suited to ask and collect the information. Regardless of the platform chosen, it must be easy for your participants to provide their feedback, and it must organize the responses in a manner that makes it meaningful for you. Scale again can be a challenge; the larger the survey or, the more properties being surveyed, the more robust the platform needs to be in order to sort and extract meaningful characteristics.
Conservice’s S2 platform, when paired with our in-house Goby ESG Consultants, can be a powerful combination to help not only survey and collect this data but also assemble it in a manner that maximizes your GRESB performance. This unique ability to deliver not only software but also service sets the program apart from other approaches. Truly providing you with a white-glove level of service.
While we made it to another new year, remember the fundamentals remain data-focused. Data will allow you to compare and identify the effectiveness of performance. Where performance is not as robust as desired, it can lead us to identify opportunities for improvement. Improvement in performance means less waste, more efficiency, reduced expense, and increased reliability. It all starts with data, and even if it is the most basic of attributes being collected, that data provides value and can help you make more strategic, meaningful decisions. If you are ready to reduce your impact, be sure to reach out to our team.
You can help reduce the impact of the built environment by sharing this blog with your peers. Together we can impact the 39% of greenhouse gasses attributed to the built environment. It starts with awareness, and we succeed with teamwork.
Stay well!
You can help reduce the impact of the built environment by sharing this blog with your peers. Together we can impact the 39% of greenhouse gasses attributed to the built environment. It starts with awareness, and we succeed with teamwork.
Stay well!
Chris Laughman is the ThirtyNine Blog author, a blog dedicated to reducing the impact of the built environment. When not blogging, Chris is helping the real estate industry reduce energy and water impact as the Vice President of Sustainability for Conservice, the Utility Experts. Whether Multifamily, Single Family, Student Housing, Commercial, or Military, we simplify utility billing and expense management by doing it for you. Our insight into your utility consumption provides an opportunity to identify risks. Leveraging innovation and experience, we ignite solutions with real impacts and track performance to ensure the trendline stays laser-focused on the goal. At Conservice, we have developed a true bill-to-boardroom solution to help truly make a difference. We have before us a tremendous opportunity. Standing shoulder to shoulder, we will get this done. Contact me at claughman@conservice.com for more information.
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