Increasingly, environmental, social, and governance principles are becoming more important to investors for their ability to generate high long-term returns.
But another advantage to ESG is emerging, especially now during the pandemic. As many firms look to cut costs, ESG can provide a roadmap, according to Matthew Ganser, EVP Engineering and Technology at Carbon Lighthouse.
"One of the great ways to control costs, especially protecting you on the downside, is to aggressively address your utility bills," Ganser says. "ESG is exactly aligned with that. So, you know, ESG investments can show a reduction in expenses to energy efficiency."
But ESG only works with accurate data about energy savings inside of a building. Ganser says artificial intelligence can help these investors determine if an ESG investment provides value over time. It can allow them to focus on principles most important to their employees, while also cutting costs.
"Being able to find the opportunity and to provide accuracy in that opportunity makes ESG worth investing in and makes it a worthwhile investment for ROI," Ganser says.
Ultimately, even an investor that believes in sustainability wants to see a return on their investment.
"If you can demonstrate to them that an investment actually makes practical business sense, regardless of their belief in sustainability, climate change or the value of ESG, you help them start to realize that this actually saves money, improves their bottom line and helps improve the wellbeing or publicity of the building," Ganser says. "You help them come to a conclusion: why would I not do that?"
As far as actual metrics, the types of needs will vary by who is asking. Some people care deeply about CO2 [carbon dioxide] savings. "For those who care very strongly about climate change, they want to know about the CO2 equivalent benefit," Ganser says. "This is, of course, the reason a lot of people make these investments. You can maybe throw other things in there like water too. But I think the biggest one that is going to be the commonality across any sort of investor or owner-operator of a building is the dollars."
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Leslie Shaver
Les Shaver has been covering commercial and residential real estate for almost 20 years. His work has appeared in Multifamily Executive, Builder, units, Arlington Magazine in addition to GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum.
