Sustainability Street: Inside an Award-Winning ESG Program

Commercial Property Executive

Welcome back to Sustainability Street, our podcast on the intersection of commercial real estate and the world we live in.

For this episode, I had the privilege of interviewing Juliette Apicella, director of sustainability at Gables Residential, a privately held owner and manager of multifamily and mixed-use properties.

I don't cover many multifamily topics on the podcast, but when I heard that Gables was awarded Best ESG Program by our sister publication Multi-Housing News in their Excellence Awards competition, I had to learn more.

Apicella is steeped in everything Gable is doing with sustainability—and that's a lot. I think you'll enjoy hearing about the company's solar initiatives, its net zero commitment, efforts to engage residents and more.

“Gable's mission is taking care of the way you live," Apicella said. "That means taking care of people and, for the company, that extends to being a good steward to the environment in which we live."

Here are some of the topics Apicella and I discussed:

• The making of a sustainability director (2:39)
• Future-proofing properties (5:36)
• Gables' goals (8:19)
• Resilience on a number of levels (17:30)
• Enter transition risk (19:42)
• Split incentive residential-style (26:50)
• Enlisting tenants in sustainability (29:04)