From the perspective of building owners / landlords, there is a need to lay out an over-arching sustainability roadmap. From an occupier/ tenant’s perspective one needs the confidence that your landlord is on the same, desired sustainability pathway. This is likely to be a greater driver for tenants in their mapping out future real estate portfolio strategy as they move closer towards their net zero targets. JLL plays a crucial role in identifying opportunities for you to decarbonize your built environment, leverage on learnings from peer group and other industries to make your environment energy efficient. It is important to understand that there is no thumb rule to a sustainability roadmap. It differs from industry to industry and across buildings and portfolios. A sustainable built environment is circular, designed for longevity, is flexible and adaptable in terms of assembly, disassembly, reuse and recoverability, and most importantly considers future climate risks. The use of low-carbon, low-impact, non-toxic materials and recovery of used resources makes it holistically sustainable.

This paper looks at India Inc.’s sustainability initiatives and their progress, specific to the built environment they operate in. We further analyse how green leases are emerging as an essential tool for occupiers to bring in a partnership ecosystem on the sustainability journey. We also present an overview of what steps can be taken to reduce operational carbon footprint of a built environment and how a combination of novel methods of mitigation and adaptation strategies can be built for action both at building and portfolio levels.