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Advancing ESG across the built environment

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Introduction

The world is not on track to avoid dangerous climate change, as highlighted by COP29 (Forster, 2024). The globe is experiencing increasingly extreme weather (UN, 2024) including flooding across the UK, European heatwaves (Organ et al., 2024), and wildfires in Australia and Europe. At COP29, the UK Prime Minister updated the UK’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 81% by 2035 compared with 1990 levels (DESNEZ, 2024). This is in addition to other increasing requirements such as whole life carbon assessments on eligible projects in some locations (e.g., London) and increasing regulations pertaining to sustainable finance across Europe.

Embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) into practices to transition to a more equitable, sustainable built environment is critical. ESG can be principally understood as a framework incorporating multiple factors categorised as environmental (E), social (S) and governance (G) (Li et al., 2021).

ESG is one of the most noticeable trends in corporate governance, management and investment over the past twenty years (Pollman, 2024), including in property and construction. It is a rapidly evolving area within the built environment, and with it, there are increasing regulatory requirements and demands. Integrating ESG into practices has many potential advantages, including facilitating access to sustainable finance and the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs) (Battisti, 2023).

The term can take on significantly different meanings and varying factors, thus offering flexibility. This flexibility presents potential challenges in understanding, adopting and measuring the success of the term.

There are multiple drivers for embedding ESG, including demand from clients. How can ESG be practically embedded to enable positive changes for businesses and the built environment, and transition to a more sustainable, equitable industry at an accelerated pace?


List of topic areas

• ESG regulations and practices, and the impact on real assets
• Building adaptation and retrofit in the context of ESG
• The role of data in monitoring, measuring and reporting ESG for built assets
• Integration of ESG to facilitate climate mitigation and resilience across real assets
• The role of finance in ESG for real estate assets


Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijbpa

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ijbpa#jlp_author_guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else while under review for this journal.


Key deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 03/02/2025
Closing date for abstract submission: 21/03/2025 (please email [email protected])
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 07/07/2025

 

References

• Battisti, F. (2023) SDGs and ESG Criteria in Housing: Defining Local Evaluation Criteria and Indicators for Verifying Project Sustainability Using Florence Metropolitan Area as a Case Study. Sustainability. 15(12), pp.1-37. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129372
• Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) (2024), UK shows international leadership in tackling climate crisis, Available from https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-shows-international-leadership-in-tackling-climate-crisis#:~:text=Setting%20an%20ambitious%202035%20NDC,other%20countries%20to%20build%20on. [Accessed 23 November 2024]
• Forster, P. (2024) Cop29: world leaders must be held to account on climate with scientific evidence, The Conversation, Available from https://shorturl.at/qibay  [Accessed on 26 November 2024]
• Government Commercial Function (2022), Promoting Net Zero Carbon and Sustainability in Construction Guidance Note, Available From https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/631222898fa8f54234c6a508/20220901-Carbon-Net-Zero-Guidance-Note.pdf [Accessed 23 November 2024]
• Li, T.-T.; Wang, K.; Sueyoshi, T.; Wang, D.D. (2021) ESG: Research Progress and Future Prospects. Sustainability, 13, 11663. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111663
• Organ, S., Organ, S., Derozier, Q. (2024), Vernacular Lessons for Mitigating Overheating
Available from https://www.buildingsandcities.org/insights/commentaries/vernacular-lessons-mitigating-overheating.html [Accessed 23 November 2024]
• Pollman, E. (2024), The Making and Meaning of ESG, University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper No. 22-23, European Corporate Governance Institute - Law Working Paper No. 659/2022, Harvard Business Law Review, Vol. 14, pp.403-453
• United Nations (UN, 2024) Climate Action - Climate Reports, Available from https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports [Accessed 23 November 2024]