Real Estate Sustainability
As a trusted advisor in the commercial real estate legal industry, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP recognizes the vital urgency of each client’s efforts to achieve environmental sustainability standards—whether the result of internally-mandated targets or regulatory requirements—both to preserve and increase the long-term value of commercial real estate holdings and to serve the greater good. We also understand that many of our clients’ most valuable real estate assets are subject to the potentially deleterious effects of climate change and attendant severe weather events that occur with increasing regularity. As such, we take a proactive role in ensuring the long-term viability of these assets.
Hunton is committed to assisting our clients in meeting goals for environmental sustainability and climate change issues in a smart and efficient manner. We leverage the wisdom and skills of our attorneys across diverse practice groups in the US and internationally. Whether the task at hand is to provide regulation compliance assistance, such as for the emissions caps in New York City’s Local Law 97, or to counsel on incentive use, such as with C-PACE financing, we have the experience to knowledgeably guide our clients.
Our real estate sustainability practice also works closely with members of a firmwide interdisciplinary team assembled to provide strategic advice to boards, management teams and investors on matters involving environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. For example, we collaborate with our market-leading real estate capital markets attorneys, integral members of our ESG team, who prepare and advise on disclosures real estate companies use to communicate with current and potential investors. Together, we counsel clients on the climate-related disclosure in SEC filings, alignment with the Taskforce Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and other voluntary frameworks and standards, and other ESG matters relevant to public REITs and other real estate investment vehicles.
As the zeitgeist of the day continues to shift toward environmental sustainability and ESG, we continue to prepare to meet the needs we expect our clients to face in the future to assist with making it a sustainable and prosperous one for us all.