In this episode of the REIT Report special series “Building to Zero,” Elena Alschuler, head of sustainability, Americas, LaSalle Investment Management, shares how the U.S. real estate industry has advanced the discussion on future planning for energy investments and reducing building-related carbon emissions. 

Elena Alschuler, head of sustainability, Americas, LaSalle Investment Management, who recently served as the working group chair for the CRREM North America project, joined

this final episode of the REIT Report special series focused on building on the real estate industry's journey to reduce emissions from the built-in environment to zero. She shares her experience in engaging the U.S. real estate community in a deep and thoughtful discussion around the CRREM Framework’s approach and methodology for measuring transition risk to institutional real estate portfolios. 

Alschuler shares how “a couple of years ago, a lot of investors were starting to look at these CRREM curves, and we liked the idea of having forward-looking targets to benchmark against in terms of planning energy and carbon performance. But when we started looking at portfolios against this particular set of curves, many of us were getting crazy results. So, twelve [U.S. and Canadian] real estate companies, including LaSalle, decided to co-fund a ULI working group, which was supported by the CRREM team in Europe, to do industry engagement and Larence Berkely National Labs (LBNL) to do the technical work.”