Strengthening ESG Initiatives through Annual Tenant Sustainability Surveys

We supported our client, a New York real estate company, in developing a Tenant Sustainability Survey that was designed to collect information related to tenant sustainability initiatives, programs, and policies. During this year-long project, we updated the survey and re-sent it to all of their tenants to gather updated information related to their Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) projects and initiatives. 

Our client will use the results of the survey to identify risks and opportunities with their tenants related to various ESG topics. The survey results from this year will inform year-over-year results to help our client understand how to improve the survey in future years and continue improving their reach.

To support our client through this project, we reviewed the old survey and provided recommendations for improving the language, adding or removing questions, and restructuring the flow of the survey. We updated the survey and sent it to our client to distribute to their selected group of tenants. After the survey was sent to tenants, our team sent weekly updates on the number of responses to our client contact on which tenants responded so that our client could decide how long they wanted the survey to remain open.

After leaving the survey open for about 2 months, we analyzed the results and summarized them into a concise slide deck to present to our client. We highlighted key takeaways and provided recommendations for improving the survey for future years and for engaging with tenants to improve their ESG initiatives.

The results of the survey showed increased engagement from the previous year, and an increased number of tenants implementing ESG initiatives. The results exposed some potential risks for our client and opportunities to collaborate with tenants and improve their ESG maturity. We provided recommendations for tenant engagement to minimize compliance risks and capitalize on potential improvement opportunities.