Page 38 - RC21 EDGE Summer Issue
P. 38
SPOTLIGHT: Carbon Neutrality
ACHIEVING CARBON NEUTRALITY IN THE
BUILT ENVIRONMENT: CONTEXT, COMMITMENT AND THE PATH FORWARD
BRENNA WALRAVEN
President & CEO Corporate Sustainability
ARAH SCHUUR
Executive Director
Northeast Energy Efficiency Partners (NEEP)
ACHIEVING OPERATIONS THAT BALANCE economic, social, and environmental goals is one of the major challenges the building industry is facing today. Less clear is how building owners and developers can seize the opportunities offered by zero-emissions mandates and disruptive energy technologies to generate busi- ness opportunities and value for their stakeholders. This year, Realcomm hosted a series of informative webinars that highlighted the pathways to improving en- vironmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. In this series, industry leaders illustrated ideas and examples of how to use smart building technologies to achieve energy savings and realize the value creation potential of ESG.
Building owners and operators are realizing that assessing and addressing the energy and carbon profile of their buildings is no longer a “nice to have” but a core
business requirement. This evolution has been happening rapidly and is driven by several factors including
investor pressures, tenant preferences, and growing government regulation. The energy used in the operation of commercial buildings contributes nearly 20 percent
of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, so the building sector must be part of the solution to rapidly and deeply cut emissions to address climate change.
The Biden-Harris administration is making climate change core to its focus and has indicated that climate change mitigation and resilience will drive priorities
in all aspects of federal action. While the full scope of this focus remains to be seen, the expectation is that more agencies, for example the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), will look at both regulatory action and directing funding with a climate lens. In fact, the SEC announced on March 2, 2021, that they have created
38
