Equity LifeStyle Properties – Alexander Wieb – 2019

Goals 

Equity Lifestyle Properties (ELS) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) and a leading operator of manufactured home communities, RV resorts and campgrounds in North America, with over 400 communities and 145,000+ sites across 32 states. The company enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Alexander Wieb to assist in the development of a corporate greenhouse gas inventory management plan and to baseline their energy use and GHG emissions across its portfolio. In addition, he assisted with additional sustainability projects including gathering data that may be used for a future GRESB submission.

Solutions

Wieb focused his efforts on tracking ELS energy use and fuel consumption data in order to compile a comprehensive corporate greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the company’s operations and real estate portfolio. He created data visualizations for the benchmarking results, which allow ELS decision makers to quickly interpret results, track performance over time, and identify opportunities for energy conservation and emission reduction initiatives. In addition, Wieb delivered options for voluntary reporting frameworks that the firm can report against. He came to these recommendations after extensive market research, competitor benchmarking and discussions with internal stakeholders. He also laid out plans for conducting a materiality assessment, helping the company confirm relevant business activities and KPIs.

Potential Impact

By using the results of the energy and emissions benchmarking, ELS can assess its environmental impact, track performance, and make informed decisions on how to reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Targeting assets and operations which are performing less efficiently according to the benchmarking results will allow ELS to readily identify energy conservation and emission reduction opportunities in the future. Moreover, Wieb’s reporting work will help improve Equity Lifestyle Properties’ ESG profile among internal and external stakeholders.