Sustainability: Initiatives

Resilience

In the face of a changing climate, it is more important than ever for real estate portfolio owners to take steps not only to mitigate climate change through emissions reductions but also to ensure that properties are resilient against current and future climate risks. Ensuring continuous, safe operations across our entire portfolio is vital to protecting our residents, our employees, and our investments. Resilience is incorporated into each of our business practices, from new development, acquisitions, and operations to asset management and investor relations.

To future-proof our portfolio, we have developed a resilience policy that addresses three key types of risk: physical, social, and transitional. During due diligence of investment properties and the design of new developments, we undertake a series of assessments and studies to identify and mitigate risk. We conduct regional risk assessments in all our target markets to identify climate scenarios that could jeopardize physical assets and we determine tailored capital scope and response plans.

Creating social resilience involves designing resident spaces, programming, and communication that promote social cohesion and position our tenant populations to thrive in the face of changing transportation, job markets, and social outlooks. Transitional risk assumes a market transition to a low-carbon economy, and we prepare by actively participating in policy and regulatory design, such as New York City’s Climate Mobilization Act.