ESG: Has Green Building’s Moment Arrived?

In his annual note to investors, BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink said, “I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance” because of climate change. The BlackRock chieftain pledged to adopt climate considerations when managing its client’s $7 billion in assets.

Fink isn’t alone in seemingly newfound interest in climate change. Buoyed by activist investors and violent wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes, along with the rising temperatures, large capital providers are looking for solutions to climate change.

“It was a really interesting moment when Yahoo finance added the sustainability tab on their website where anybody can go and find out what the ESG [Environmental, Social and Governance] performance of a company is and how that compares to its competitors,” says Rachel Gutter, president of the International WELL Building Institute. “These things are really being brought into the mainstream.”