ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) represents the three pillars that a company is expected to report on while operating the business. It is a framework used to measure the sustainability and ethical impact of an organisation and should be embedded in every company’s strategy to ensure they consider all stakeholders’ needs when making decisions, not least of which the environment. This environmental aspect of ESG, in particular, is becoming increasingly important, especially for large corporations, in order to target carbon neutrality or carbon zero by 2050. Therefore, finding ways to reduce a company’s carbon footprint is critical. In this blog, we will look at ESG specifically from a property management perspective and take a closer look at 4 common focuses for ESG initiatives in property management.
ESG is a growing trend in property management and all property managers should make the following 4 ESG initiatives a top priority to ensure they are acting sustainably and responsibly. However, as technology and the idea of sustainability develop, more opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of managing property will surely emerge.
Lighting, air conditioning, heating and other forms of energy usage represent a large expense for property managers. Any ways to control this is welcome not just from a financial point of view, but also from an environmental perspective. Thanks to advances in technology, there are now plenty of ways to reduce energy usage, for instance managers may consider installing smart lighting, which utilities IoT sensors to automatically turn lighting on and off when needed.
Again, thanks to developments in technology, there are other ways to reduce energy bills, while also being more sustainable. Alternative ways to generate energy for properties, such as installing solar panels, are becoming more popular and are good way to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.
To help with waste reduction and management, so called “green leases” between landlords and tenants to meet certain environment objectives are starting to become more common. The leases may include clauses concerning electricity use per occupant, water use and volume of waste deposed of in landfills. To assist in waste reduction and monitoring, technology plays a key role on the process. Companies such as GF Technovation in Hong Kong have developed a smart bin, smart auto-sorting recycling bin and smart food waste recycling bin. Their smart auto-sorting recycling bin, for instance, assists with waste management by using integrated AI and image processing technology to automatically identify waste items and sort them into plastic, paper, metal or glass containers to improve the accuracy to reduce the backend re-sorting, and provides automated measurement of each tenant’s disposal weight for later charging.
See the smart auto-sorting recycling bin in action here:
Last but certainly not least is the consideration of using green construction materials and methods of construction in the building planning process. By moving from traditional construction materials such as steel and concrete which have a large carbon footprint, to more sustainable options, property managers can significantly improve their ESG rating. This notion of using more sustainable construction materials and methods is certain to become a must as more green building codes come into effect.
As the trend of ESG grows in importance for property management, thankfully there are plenty of solutions to help. GF Technovation’s range of cost-effective smart products, including smart bins, smart auto-sorting recycling bins and smart food waste recycling bins, not only reduce overheads for property managers and make waste management easier, they also help with energy and waste reduction thereby helping achieve better ESG. To learn more, click here.
