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Sustainability: The risk management category
Corporate Real Estate Journal,
14
(3),
266-279
(2025)
Abstract
The growing emphasis on sustainability in the real estate market is being driven by regulatory demands, stakeholder expectations, and positive financial outcomes into becoming a vital risk management strategy. Investors, lenders, and tenants are increasingly integrating environmental, social, governance, and resilience (ESG+R) considerations to enhance efficiency, position for resilience, and positive financial performance and mitigate compliance risks. It is essential for real estate owners and operators to be engaged in these climate transition and physical risks from topdown and bottom-up on regulations and climate reporting mandates, such as the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Climate Disclosure Rules, and the array of locally legislated Building Performance Standards policies across the USA. Understanding key material risks, including transition and physical risks associated with climate impacts, and adoption of frameworks, such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) for risk assessment, is crucial. Implementing ESG+R initiatives can improve operational efficiency, resulting in cost savings, enhanced tenant/occupant satisfaction, and increased asset value. Effective climate risk management in this evolving regulatory landscape requires collaboration across organisational levels and strategic planning to achieve sustainability goals and optimise long-term investment returns.
Keywords: sustainability; environmental; social; and governance (ESG); climate; climate resilience; risk management; transition risk; physical risk; building performance standards (BPS)
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Author's Biography
Brenna Walraven is the internationally recognised leader of commercial real estate and sustainability. She came to RE Tech through the acquisition of Corporate Sustainability Strategies, where she was the Founder and the CEO. Brenna has nearly 30 years of commercial real estate leadership, including almost 17 years at USAA Real Estate (now Affinius Capital) as the Head of property operations. She is the former chairman and the Chief Elected Officer of the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) — the first female to hold this position in the 100+ year history of the organisation. Brenna is a pioneer in sustainability and the built environment, contributing to key industry initiatives, including development of the BOMA Energy Efficiency Programme (BEEP), the Clinton Climate Initiative to develop a private sector approach to energy performance contracting and the BOMI International High-Performance Sustainable Buildings designation programme, serving as an executive editor and an instructor. In her role, Brenna provides best practises solutions while helping clients to develop and implement business-case-focused environmental, corporate responsibility, governance, and resilience (ESG+R) strategies for commercial real estate operations, asset management, and investor engagement. Brenna is a BOMA Fellow, a licenced broker, and a Fitwel Ambassador. A graduate from the University of Southern California, she holds an undergraduate degree in economics and an MBA degree with an emphasis in finance and real estate. She also serves on the Green Seal board of directors as the vice chair and has been the guest lecturer for New York University, Columbia University, Chapman University, and California State University, Fullerton.
Shila Wattamwar sits on the executive leadership team at RE Tech Advisors, an advisory firm dedicated to furthering the sustainability of institutional commercial real estate assets and is also the founder of Radiant Global Advisory (RGA), an independent advisory service that works with companies and consumers to help accelerate their sustainability journey. Prior to RE Tech and RGA, Shila sat on the Executive and Leadership Team at Sustainalytics, helping lead significant company growth. She was a key member of the team that ultimately led the company through acquisition. Shila sits on the board of Green Seal, is a co-chair of the board of Chefs4Impact, sits on the Fast Company Impact Council, founded the educational platform SustainableMe! and has published her first book, ‘Simply Sustainable: Simple Behaviors for Sustainable Living’. Shila’s objective is to mobilise and align key stakeholders such as investors, companies, and consumers so that we can optimise the pathways towards a more sustainable world.
Colin Curzi has 10+ years of experience at the intersection of policy and sustainability in the built environment. As the Head of Building Policy, he guides clients through the climate transition risk posed by local, state, federal, and international policies while building their decarbonisation strategies. Colin spent years as a management consultant with Accenture advising clients on technology and clean energy projects before moving on to write the smart city and sustainable infrastructure policies for the cities of Boston and Baltimore. Colin went on to develop the sustainability and mobility strategy for the Toronto Tomorrow master plan through Google’s Sidewalk Labs and was awarded the Environmental Defense Fund’s 2019 Business Case Award for his work in green buildings. Most recently, he served as the Associate Director of Building Performance Partnerships at the Institute for Market Transformation supporting real estate’s compliance with building performance standards policies.
