Meme of the Moment: Responsible Property Investing

Professor Gary Pizo, University of Arizona, is a leading author and proponent of Responsible Property Investment (RPI). His recent paper, “Responsible property investment criteria developed using the Delphi Method” (Building Research & Information, (2008) Vol. 36, Iss. 1) discusses the development of criteria used to evaluate the micro (property level) and macro (community level) value of property investments.

The Delphi Method, which uses multi-round feedback from a group of experts as a way to achieve ‘broadly considered opinion’, was employed in a 3 round exercise involving experts from socially responsible investing (35%), real estate (40%), engineering and design (8%), and academia (17%). Using a group of 51 experts to start, the Delphi Method helped prioritize 66 criteria when considering responsible property investing. There was considerable overlap amongst the top 20 criteria, and among the top 10, most are derivations of either efficient use of utilities or proximity to multi-modal transportation. Most interesting is Table 4, which describes the criteria using categories such as location, site and building design, owner behavior, occupant behavior, and operations and maintenance. Tellingly for my purposes, 52 of the 66 criteria had some overlap in operations and maintenance. In short, investors value the sustainability of their sustainable investment. Overall, an interesting paper that should lead to further investigation by academia and industry.