Increase in building’s sustainability initiatives

Sustainability initiatives – Multinational corporations are currently prioritizing greater energy efficiency, improved indoor air quality (IAQ), and compliance with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards as they come under increasing pressure to incorporate their building operations into their Sustainability initiatives. These are some of the main conclusions of a study that Honeywell and Reuters published today.

Only 4% of respondents said it was unimportant. Nearly eight out of ten respondents (87%) say that achieving carbon neutrality in their building portfolio is either extremely (58%) or somewhat (29%) important in relation to their overall ESG goals. It makes sense that there is a sense of urgency: 37% of the world’s energy-related CO2 emissions are currently attributed to commercial building operations.

This opinion was mirrored by Manish Sharma, Vice President and General Manager of Sustainable Buildings at Honeywell, based on his ongoing discussions with both present and potential clients. In 2025, he predicted that organizations will place a high priority on becoming carbon neutral, in part due to new carbon taxing schemes and decarbonization incentives.

Sustainability initiatives

Although the organizations being polled are under pressure to take action, respondents seem generally upbeat in their projections of their success. More than 90% of respondents anticipate reaching carbon neutrality across their portfolios by 2050, and 62% anticipate doing so by 2035. Notably, only 8% of respondents claim they don’t see their portfolios ever becoming carbon neutral.

Respondents’ listed advantages include:

The business advantages of stepping up sustainability initiatives across building portfolios were also mentioned by respondents. They listed the following when asked which three of these advantages they valued the most:

90% of respondents rated the company as complying with external regulations and investor needs, with more than 50% placing it at the top.

Gaining productivity and achieving cost savings: 84%

Brand image improvement: 60%

The poll also showed that businesses are making smart investments to hasten decarbonization and enhance all-around building performance. A significant majority (80%) of respondents name an on-site energy management system as one investment they’ve made to improve the sustainability of their building operations, despite the fact that they list a variety of specific actions.

The Honeywell Building Sustainability Manager powered by Honeywell Forge is a collection of ready-to-use solutions that assist building owners and operators in balancing two important but frequently at odds goals: improving indoor air quality while minimizing environmental impact.

According to Liam Dowd, Industry Lead – Sustainable Business, Reuters Professional, “Incorporating the operation of buildings into sustainability planning is an ongoing process with no definite endpoint.” “The first step is to benchmark the carbon output of buildings and define the current state of the portfolio,” the survey’s authors write. “While the organizations surveyed differ in how far they’ve advanced toward developing strategies and solutions to support this process.

The significance of enhancing building operations supports the focus on sustainability that businesses are making, as shown in the recently released Honeywell Environmental Sustainability Index[ii], a quarterly global survey that captures key trends in corporate sustainability initiatives and other attempts to mitigate climate change. In the Honeywell Environmental Sustainability Index survey, 65% of organizations said they prioritized sustainability over other projects, and 48% said they did the same.

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