Quantify Your Footprint: First Step to Solving the Climate Risk Puzzle

For real estate owners, grappling with climate risk can feel overwhelming. With unclear regulatory requirements, evolving market expectations, and shifting business realities, finding the best path forward is murky. So over the next several weeks, we’ll be leveraging our unique industry position and decades of ESG, utility, and consulting experience to share four simple but powerful steps you can take to solve the climate risk puzzle and ensure that your properties are “climate-ready.”

So where do you begin? Perform a GHG Inventory.

Virtually any climate strategy begins with an assessment of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with your operations. By measuring and disclosing your emissions, you ensure regulatory compliance, build trust with stakeholders, and position your organization as a responsible leader in sustainability.

We recommend conducting a GHG inventory before it’s required. Your first inventory sets the stage for future success, helping you define reporting boundaries, operational control, and which inputs are most material to your overall footprint. Investing time now to address these questions will make future compliance effortless and pave the way for long-term success.

How to take a GHG Inventory:

Most emissions result from electricity and natural gas used for heating and cooling, but other sources must also be tracked. A GHG Inventory considers all material emissions within a business’s scope, which are classified as direct (onsite) or indirect (offsite) and fall into three scopes.

• Scope 1 includes onsite emissions from assets directly managed by the entity. Think company cars and buildings.
• Scope 2 encompasses offsite emissions used to operate managed assets. Think coal-fired power plants generating electricity.
• Scope 3 covers all other emissions related to the creation and disposal of products and services. Think business travel, employee commuting, and end-of-life management.

How we help:

We didn’t trademark The Utility Experts™ lightly. If conducting your own GHG Inventory seems overwhelming, let us handle it for you. We conduct GHG Inventories all the time and can do it for you! Additionally, our Sustainability Solutions (S2) package combines top-notch Conservice ESG software and services. With S2, you can effortlessly measure, benchmark, and leverage your portfolio’s ESG data to attract investors and remain in compliance—positioning your organization as a sustainability leader.

Listen to an expert:

What’s next?

Once you have successfully quantified your portfolio’s footprint, you’re ready for our next step. Stay tuned for our next piece of the puzzle!