What is ESG — or environmental, social and governance? It is basically a framework to assess how a commercial real estate portfolio manages risks and opportunities resulting from shifting conditions, market and otherwise, to environmental, social and economic systems. Environmental criteria address a company’s impact on and stewardship of the environment. Social criteria refer to how a company manages relationships with and creates value for stakeholders, such as customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders. Governance criteria refer to a company’s leadership and management philosophy, practices, policies, internal controls and shareholder rights, including diversity, equity and inclusion and transparency of procedures and decision-making.
Real Estate NJ’s 2022 Market Forecast
Every year has its ups and downs. Every market has highs and lows. Both were true when it came to New Jersey’s commercial real estate sector in 2021, a year that marked ongoing dominance for some asset classes, as COVID-19 continued to loom over others. Whether those trends endure in 2022 remains to be seen, but we’ve recruited some of the industry’s most prominent developers, service providers and insiders to help set the stage. You can find their predictions, insights and more in our special 2022 Market Forecast.
Starting anew
The debate over New Jersey’s corporate incentive programs has been well-chronicled in recent years, but regardless of where you fall on the issue, there’s no denying their influence on the state’s commercial real estate market. That influence was all but gone for two years after Grow New Jersey and other subsidy programs were allowed to expire in summer 2019, with no immediate replacements in sight until Gov. Phil Murphy and lawmakers agreed on new incentives late last year. The state is now putting those offerings to work, starting with the jobs-based Emerge program that will fill the void left by Grow New Jersey.
