At a recent roundtable, hosted by ACA and Scaler, guests shared insights on the evolving ESG landscape and identified four priorities that will shape the future. This article builds on those discussions and our earlier May 2025 briefing to explore what these priorities mean for your business:
- Linking sustainability initiatives to financial returns remains a critical, yet unresolved, challenge.
- Financial decision-makers prioritize net operating income (NOI), so sustainability efforts must clearly demonstrate value creation and cost savings to gain traction.
- Aligning diverse stakeholder priorities through tailored communication is essential to drive engagement and move projects forward.
- Investors are demanding more granular sustainability data, reshaping disclosure practices and influencing capital allocation decisions.
How Real Estate Firms Can Turn ESG Priorities into Measurable Value
Let’s dive deeper into what each priority means in practice, and the steps firms can take to deliver real financial and sustainability value.
1. Linking sustainability initiatives to financial ROI remains a critical, yet unresolved, challenge.
While ESG integration in real estate has matured from “Why do it?” to “How do we drive value?,” the industry still struggles to consistently quantify the financial return of sustainability initiatives. Firms with advanced programs are embedding ESG into underwriting and asset management, but many firms remain stuck in decentralized, disclosure-driven approaches.
The next frontier is translating sustainability into valuation and cost efficiency metrics, supported by credible, early-stage data, so ESG can become a lever for asset value growth, not just a reporting obligation.
How ACA helps
ACA helps clients align ESG initiatives with financial value by working with internal stakeholders to identify key value levers within sustainability programs and supporting the use of ESG data to communicate asset performance.
How Scaler helps
Scaler converts previously fragmented data on sustainability performance into actionable insights, enabling stakeholders to connect retrofit and decarbonization measures to financial outcomes, saving time, reducing headaches, and improving confidence in decision making.
2. Financial decision-makers prioritize NOI, so sustainability efforts must clearly demonstrate value creation and cost savings to gain traction.
In today’s capital environment, underwriting teams and investment committees focus on NOI, not ESG scores.
To gain traction, sustainability teams must translate their work into financial terms, showing how energy savings, operational efficiencies, and risk mitigation directly impact asset performance.
This shift requires data to build confidence, and a move away from compliance mindsets toward business enablement, where ESG is positioned as a driver of NOI and long-term value.
How ACA helps
ACA’s Advisory team implements scalable data collection governance structures that ensure high-quality, timely ESG data that empower firms to demonstrate the operational and financial performance of their assets with confidence.
How Scaler helps
Scaler visualizes energy spend and consumption trends to help teams identify cost-saving opportunities and make data-backed decisions to strengthen asset performance. The platform directly connects sustainability measures to improvements in NOI and value, simplifying the planning and prioritization of efficiency measures.3. Aligning diverse stakeholder priorities through tailored communication is essential to drive engagement and move projects forward.
Change management was identified as one of the biggest barriers to ESG execution. Stakeholders ranging from firm executives to property managers have different priorities, and sustainability language often feels too abstract to drive action.
Success depends on reframing ESG in terms that each group values: risk and returns for executives, incentives for property teams, and clear financial metrics for finance leads. ESG teams that can foster cross-functional collaboration and tailor conversations to the appropriate stakeholders are best positioned to overcome resistance and accelerate adoption.
How ACA helps
ACA takes a change management approach to develop stakeholder engagement strategies that are specific to each party. We help define role-specific value propositions and equip internal champions with the tools and data they need to build company-wide buy-in.
How Scaler helps
Scaler’s best-in-class user interface provides an approachable, easy to understand venue that fosters cross collaboration across the real estate value chain, from C-suite executives to ESG teams to asset and property managers.
4. Investors are demanding more granular sustainability data, reshaping disclosure practices and influencing capital allocation decisions.
Limited Partners (LPs) are no longer satisfied with high-level, qualitative ESG narratives; they want raw data, decarbonization plans, and climate risk assessments that align with their investment timelines. This shift is transforming the General Partner-Limited Partner (GP-LP) relationship, pushing firms to build real-time ESG data systems and move from reactive reporting to proactive transparency.
As LPs increasingly tie capital commitments to credible performance metrics, firms that can deliver early, auditable data and demonstrate ESG’s financial materiality will have a competitive edge in fundraising and deal flow.
How ACA helps
ACA supports clients in meeting evolving investor expectations by creating ESG disclosure strategies, helping define material metrics, and guiding the development of scalable data collection and reporting processes that enable timely, audit-ready insights aligned with LP demands.
How Scaler helps
Confidence in your data is the foundation of sound decision-making, and Scaler provides deep insights into data quality and a myriad of options for improved automation of both data collection and reporting. Scaler’s platform makes it easy to understand the status of your performance improvement initiatives and share that success with your investors and stakeholders.
Bringing It All Together
ESG success isn’t just about compliance; it’s about creating financial value. By linking sustainability to NOI, managing change effectively, and meeting investor demands for granular data, firms can transform ESG from a cost center into a growth lever. Those who act now will gain a competitive edge in capital allocation and asset performance.
Ready to turn ESG into a value driver? Book a free ESG strategy session today.
About ACA Group
ACA Group (ACA) is the leading governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisor in financial services. For over 20 years, we’ve empowered our clients to launch, grow, and protect their business. Our global team of 1,400 employees includes former regulators and practitioners with a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape. Our innovative approach integrates advisory, managed services, distribution solutions, and analytics with our ComplianceAlpha® technology platform.
ACA’s dedicated ESG practice helps firms of all sizes develop and monitor ESG programs to mitigate risk, make informed choices, grow profitably and sustainably, and combat greenwashing in the process. For more information, visit our ESG advisory services.
About Scaler
Scaler is the leading sustainability platform, purpose-built for the real estate industry. They help managers and investors protect asset value, reduce risk, and improve long-term performance with tools that are practical and easy to use.
Scaler’s team brings deep experience in finance, real estate, and technology. They built Scaler to make complex ESG data simple and useful, so firms can move faster, make better decisions, and create real impact. For more information, visit www.scalerglobal.com.