Missing Metrics: Why Carbon Alone Can’t Define Real Estate Sustainability

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Beyond Net Zero: Redefining Real Estate Sustainability Through Resilience, Health, and Equity - Thought Leadership by #SustXGlobal50 Awardee Breana Wheeler, United States

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Summary

In this thought leadership article, "Missing Metrics: Why Carbon Alone Can’t Define Real Estate Sustainability" by Breana Wheeler, U.S. Director of Operations, BRE, United States, and a recipient of The SustainabilityX® Magazine Global 50 Women In Sustainability Awards™ 2025, challenges the industry’s narrow focus on carbon reduction and calls for a broader, more integrated approach to climate resilience. While emissions targets and net-zero commitments have advanced sustainability across commercial real estate, they leave critical gaps in resilience, human health, and social equity. Drawing on data from climate disasters, occupant well-being research, and building performance analytics, Wheeler argues that the next frontier of sustainable real estate must be future-ready, community-centered, and adaptive. By embedding resilience, wellness, and inclusivity alongside decarbonization, frameworks like BREEAM are transforming sustainability from a compliance exercise into a driver of lasting economic, environmental, and social value.

For more than a decade, carbon reduction has dominated the commercial real estate sustainability agenda. From net-zero commitments to emissions disclosure, the industry has made significant progress to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and in 2024, more than 75% of S&P 500 companies published climate-related disclosures aligned with TCFD, while over 1,500 North American companies committed to these science-based targets.

Yet, even with these measures, buildings remain exposed to escalating physical and transitional risks. Last year, the U.S. experienced 27 separate climate disasters that each caused at least $1 billion in damage, totalling $182.7 billion and making 2024 the fourth-costliest year on record. At the same time, insured damage from severe weather in Canada surpassed a record high of CA$ 8.5 billion.

While carbon reduction remains a critical action to address climate risk, it is no longer the only action that is needed. Climate change is creating multiple interrelated risks that all must be addressed cohesively. True sustainability requires resilience, health, and equity adopted at the scale of not only buildings but entire communities. By embracing this broader lens, science-driven frameworks like BREEAM are helping shift the North American real estate market from a compliance mindset to a future-ready one, delivering spaces that are low-carbon, climate-adaptive, community-minded, and economically durable.

A Carbon-Only Lens Leaves Gaps

Net-zero targets and decarbonization strategies have propelled measurable progress across many portfolios but focusing solely on carbon leaves critical vulnerabilities unaddressed. Even the most energy-efficient buildings can be disrupted by climate shocks such as flooding, heatwaves, and wildfires, or by cascading disruptions like rolling blackouts and infrastructure failures.

As such, resilience is a cornerstone of sustainable real estate. Proactive measures like flood mitigation, passive cooling, backup power integration, and water management protect occupants and critical systems during extreme events, reduce insurance and maintenance costs, limit operational downtime, and safeguard long-term asset value. In an era of increasingly frequent climate and infrastructure risks, resilience is no longer optional; it is essential to ensuring a building’s performance, financial stability, and relevance over time.

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Buildings also must be assessed in how they impact human performance and social outcomes: occupants spend roughly 90% of their time indoors, yet indoor environmental quality — including factors like air quality, daylight, and acoustics — is often overlooked. This could have an especially harmful effect in spaces such as schools and offices, given that Harvard research shows improving indoor air quality can boost cognitive performance by up to 61%, directly linking building health to occupant satisfaction and productivity. Leaning into accessible, healthy design and thoughtful integration with local infrastructure can generate value far beyond the building footprint. On the other hand, ignoring these dimensions introduces hidden costs, from tenant churn to reputational risk, leaving assets vulnerable as stakeholder expectations evolve.

To address these gaps, the industry must embed resilience, health, and equity into every stage of a building’s lifecycle. Research shows well-performing, health-conscious spaces can command up to 11% higher rents and benefit from over 10% higher occupancy, with certified assets often outperforming peers on valuation and risk management.

By broadening the lens beyond carbon, commercial real estate can capture the full spectrum of operational, financial, and social value that truly sustainable buildings deliver.

From Compliance Checklists to Proactive Action

Much of today’s commercial real estate activity remains compliance-driven: meeting code, tracking emissions, and preparing for disclosure and reporting seasons. Though necessary, these steps alone do not guarantee durability, occupant satisfaction, or long-term market value.

The industry must shift from a checklist mindset to a broader, more proactive, and integrated approach that anticipates climate risks, enhances building performance, and creates meaningful value for tenants, communities, and investors. Owners and operators taking this path are already seeing tangible benefits including stronger tenant retention, higher rents, reduced risk of stranded assets, and alignment with growing investor expectations, turning sustainability from a regulatory obligation into a strategic advantage.

Sustainability Evolved: From Mitigation to Transformation

Decarbonization remains essential, but sustainability is no longer synonymous with carbon reduction. The next frontier for sustainable real estate is more transformative — designing and operating assets that withstand disruption, support human well-being, and deliver value for decades to come.

Climate shocks, rising tenant expectations, and evolving investor priorities are redefining value in real estate. Focusing on emissions alone risks obsolescence and missed opportunity, while embracing a holistic view of sustainability uncovers new value for organizations and the communities they serve.

The next decade will define which buildings and portfolios thrive or falter under climate, social, and economic pressures, and those within the industry face a choice: continue measuring success by narrow metrics or embrace the complexity of real-world performance to create assets that truly endure.

About The SustainabilityX® Magazine

The SustainabilityX® Magazine is an award-winning, digital, female-founded, and female-led non-profit initiative bringing the environment and economy together for a sustainable future through dialogue, and now transforming the environment and economy for a sustainable future through the power of women's leadership. Founded on May 8, 2016, and inspired by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals by Canada's Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership awardee, Supriya Verma, the digital media initiative focuses on approaching the world's most pressing challenges with a holistic, integrated, systems-based perspective as opposed to the traditional and ineffective siloed approach with a single lens on interdisciplinary topics like climate and energy. This initiative ultimately seeks to explore how to effectively bring the environment and economy together through intellectual, insightful dialogue and thought-provoking discussion amongst individuals across sectors taking an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to untangling the intricate web of sustainability while championing women's leadership in sustainability.

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As we expand our mission to align with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), we continue to explore the diverse and interconnected factors that influence sustainability. By recognizing how these elements interact across local, national, and international levels, we aim to accelerate progress toward sustainability goals. In essence, this aligns with The SustainabilityX® Magazine's vision of integrating environmental and economic progress for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future through thoughtful dialogue.

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