Complexity of emissions reporting restraining net-zero compliance efforts

International and domestic commercial real estate owners have made considerable progress on the path to decarbonization and in tracking emissions but faced with the twin COVID-19 legacies of low office occupancy and high borrowing costs, net-zero compliance has become more challenging, say experts.

While half of the companies in the S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index have linked executive compensation to climate change goals, Deloitte’s recent 2024 commercial real estate outlook, called Finding Terra Firma, found that 60 per cent of commercial REITs surveyed this year lack the data, processes and internal controls needed to meet emissions reporting requirements.