One of us negotiated a 10-year commercial lease that includes ESG clauses, indoor air quality standards, and tenant wellness language.
The other just got the call because someone spilled three floors of sprinkler water into a newly leased tenant space.Now the tenant’s watching.
The ops team is tense.
And the question is:Can we do this job in a way that keeps the promise the lease made?
CRE teams are agreeing to leases that say things like:
Maintain WELL or LEED certification
Limit use of specific chemicals or materials
Keep air quality within target thresholds
Minimize tenant disruption during repairs
Provide transparency and ESG reporting if requested
Most of the time, these live quietly in the background.
Until something breaks.
And then the building has to prove it wasn’t just saying the right things.
The PM is thinking:
“If we don’t handle this cleanly, the tenant might escalate — and we could breach the lease.”
The contractor is thinking:
“We can do the job two ways — fast and quiet, or clean and compliant. Which one protects the client more?”
What we both want is the same:
Restore function and protect reputation.
| Clause in Lease | Jobsite Behavior |
|---|---|
| “Maintain indoor air quality” | Use HEPA during demo, seal off clean zones, run IAQ logs |
| “Use non-toxic materials” | Sub in low-VOC adhesives, labeled and documented |
| “Minimize tenant disruption” | Schedule during off-hours, communicate ahead of time, keep access paths clean |
| “Provide ESG data” | Deliver material and equipment logs as part of closeout |
You don’t need to be an ESG expert.
You just need to work like someone’s watching. Because they are.
If you're the PM:
“Flag anything that could violate ESG clauses — and log everything that proves we complied.”
If you're the restoration lead:
“Want us to prep a version of the report for the tenant-facing ESG file? We’ve done that before.”
This is how two roles protect one relationship.
The lease is the promise. The job is the test.
ESG doesn’t just live in boardrooms.
It lives in the duct tape decisions, the materials we load in, the way we clean up after.
If both sides stay conscious — even when moving fast —
then what gets rebuilt isn’t just space.
It’s credibility.
And that’s what renews the lease, keeps the tenant, and gets us all called back again.