With the pressure from investors and regulators for the CRE industry as others to reduce their carbon footprints, eventually reaching net zero, you might expect companies to look for the fast track.

For years, that has been carbon trading and offsets. Company A finds a way to claim the ability to lock in carbon and sells credits to Company B. It's like buying an indulgence during the Middle Ages — pay some money for a happy dose of forgiveness.

But such maneuvers have been the subject of criticism over the years. Some companies will oversell credits or be unable to verify and guarantee the amount of carbon captured. The entire concept can go haywire if companies providing credits are not doing anything extraordinary, raising the question of whether there are any overall incremental actual improvements. Under the arrangement, Company B isn't reducing the amount of carbon it generates as there's no pressure to reduce the total carbon of all the participants in such voluntary carbon markets (VCMs).