Driving Sustainable Value

Green Cities Launches Update to Groundbreaking ESG Index

Lauren Winkler, Senior Director, ESG & Innovation

At Green Cities, we have a long history of realizing investment value in alignment with sustainability and social impact goals.  Through our vertically integrated, in-house expertise, we are able to leverage our deep understanding of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations both for impact as well as measurable financial performance. 

In 2020, we conducted a robust materiality assessment to determine the key ESG considerations for our investment strategy as a multifamily, value-add investor, as well as identify the areas within the broader industry where we could continue to pioneer innovative impact solutions.  The result of this exercise was the creation of our proprietary Green Cities Index (GCI), a unique and robust rubric which provides for deep accountability to promote and integrate our focus on five key pillars:  Environmental Impact, Climate Change Mitigation, Resilience, Health & Wellbeing, and Equitable Communities.  The line items of the GCI have allowed us to drive ESG considerations throughout our investments’ lifecycles, mitigating risks and improving operating costs and asset valuations.

In 2023 – as a matter of best practice but also as a matter of advancing our ESG-related performance – we refreshed this exercise, resulting in the GCI v2.0.