Canadian firms lag on ‘green’ issues says report

A new report says the Canadian commercial real estate industry is playing catch-up with respect to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when compared to international peers. The Canadian Commercial Real Estate Sustainability Intelligence Report, released by research firm Jantzi-Sustainalytics in association with the Real Property Association of Canada (REALpac), evaluates the ESG performance of 18 of Canada’s largest commercial real estate companies and compares them to some of their international counterparts.

“REALpac is pleased with the efforts of those Canadian real estate companies cited in the report as being strong ESG performers. We believe this study helps to inform Canadian commercial real estate organizations of the areas in which they can improve,” says Michael Brooks, REALpac CEO.

The report found that although Canadian companies showed relatively high performance in the areas of business ethics, labour practices and health and safety, they lag behind on environmental and disclosure issues. The authors recommend that the real estate sector as a whole incorporate information gathering from stakeholders and best practices, an integrated corporate responsibility and sustainability policy, implementation of sustainability strategies and tactics, and communications planning to keep stakeholders informed about initiatives and achievements.

“Stakeholders, including governments, tenants and investors, are putting increasing pressure on companies to adopt green initiatives. This is about more than just the bottom line. This is a movement toward corporate responsibility and sustainability having a concrete impact on the real estate industry,” says Simon MacMahon, director of sustainability services at Jantzi-Sustainalytics and author of the report.