The social component of ESG strategies has become important "for all the right reasons" as of late, according to CBRE CEO Chuck Leitner.

The global CRE firm's chief executive noted on a recent episode of the firm's "The Weekly Take" podcast that while governance has been a key component for quite some time within the CRE industry, the social component has assumed a particular importance—rightly so—over the last few years. 

Communication around ESG goals requires a lot of nuance, according to Leitner. This starts with making quantifiable commitments to an objective and expressing concrete steps to getting there, "which makes a big statement and your willingness to measure progress against those goals," he said. "It takes a lot of bravery to put a number out there and also be able to say explain why you're not there or why you may never get there to an absolute net zero situation."