Equistone’s Simple Green Investment Tool

Our work has shown us that any firm’s success with green investing is based  (in part) on how effectively  it communicates with its stakeholders — employees, building staff and tenants — over time, as opposed to at any given moment.

Unfortunately, we regularly run into landlords who treat communication as a one-sided imperative.  Their tenants receive bland emails written by the Borg about a green initiative only when there’s a specific request, without any thinking about how that message fits into the overall relationship that’s been built up over time.

But we found an example of a landlord who is taking a more positive approach, and getting their stakeholders to rally around their sustainability efforts. The lesson here: a green investment strategy often includes simple, thoughtful moves focused on long term relationship building.

Case in point –> Benjamin Osgood, a partner at Equistone Partners, sends out Five Simple Things, a newsletter about sustainability to all of Equistone’s tenants, vendors and associates. Five Simple Things features concise how-to lessons about resource efficiency. The newsletter is a hit with their tenants, because the simple hints help make sustainability achievable at any level.

Particularly clever is that the newsletter combines hints for going green at the home and office. That way, tenants and vendors can identify personally with going green, a key to getting their buy-in on more formal project related initiatives.

Benjamin says that they’ve been happily surprised at how the the subscriber list has grown far beyond their existing tenants. Take a look for yourself — subscribe to Five Simple Things here.

We want to hear from you:

How are you engaging stakeholders on your green initiatives?

Write us and tell us your best stories. We’d love to share your story with the Green Journey crowd.