Alexandra Ingram of JLL talks about ESG and sustainability in commercial real estate

“A lot of questions asked during the due diligence period are now getting asked at pre-acquisition phase before the bid is even submitted, which is transforming the transactional market,” says Alexandra in her conversation with Investment Monitor. Decarbonization is another key trend that Ingram has noticed. She explains that most of JLL’s clients have set their carbon goals in order to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

“Something that we are sure of at JLL is that legislation is only going to get more stringent; there is only going to be more of it.” This could spell good news for those who have been on the eco-friendly road.

Ingram shared that the companies she sees as market leaders are those that are setting up their own internal carbon prices because they are helping build the financial cost and implications of higher emissions into a business case.

Navigating the dynamic ESG space could sometimes be challenging even for Ms. Ingram who pins it on the lack of a global standardized definition of net-zero only adding to the complexity. “We need a global standard methodology that is strict, links to science-based targets, can be measured, and that means people can be held accountable,” she says.

Embodied carbon and operational carbon is another challenge for Ingram. Her reservation lies in the fact that while people invest in new buildings because they are energy efficient it is to the complete exclusion of another fact that there is carbon embodied carbon included in a new development.

Measuring social impact is another key challenge because there are challenges around having a global social impact strategy, given that every country has its own cultural differences and approaches. You can’t make it too granular at local level because that is not efficient.

When it comes to JLL’s future plans, Ingram explains that the company has set up a sustainability graduate program, where around 30 graduates will join the company across several disciplines in 2022 while concomitantly recruiting 500 new graduates globally by the end of the year, as JLL focuses on expanding its capability in delivering sustainability services.

It is essential that when it comes to navigating ESG and measuring it regularly so that it keeps up with emerging trends is essential for the future of every company and investor, they have to make sure that all their actions show that upscaling and training employees in sustainability is also key, given that ESG is a fast-moving space and one needs to know it in an in-depth manner to make any good of it.