Responsible property investing: what the leaders are doing

Purpose – This paper seeks to help those making investment decisions on existing commercial real estate portfolios to understand how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues impact the current value and prospective investment performance of the assets they own and manage. Design/methodology/approach – The issues and literature related to ESG issues in property investing are reviewed and examples of what industry leaders are doing to address these issues are collected and reported. Findings – Property investors can realize greater returns on their investments through considering and acting on a range of social and environmental issues. Lenders, owners, fund managers, asset and property managers, and developers can all incorporate RPI strategies into their own activities. RPI strategies can be categorized into ten elements covering environmental, social and community issues. There are two types of financially sound RPI strategies: no cost and value added approaches. More research needs to be carried out to understand the economic impacts of some strategies. Originality/value – Sustainability and corporate social responsibility are major and growing issues for property investors. The study demonstrates a successful example of how fund and asset managers are responding to these issues which can be considered by other managers in their own strategic planning.