Analysis of the portrait of sustainable building management practices used in 2022 by the public sector property asset managers in Quebec

Sustainable development, the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity have become essential considerations in all the different business sectors. They particularly affect the construction and real estate sectors, which contribute to nearly 38% of all global carbon dioxide emissions (UNEP, 2023). Sustainable development has been transposed to real estate by the concept of sustainable or green building. Property asset managers must therefore adopt effective practices to comply with good sustainable building practices and to manage the social, economic, and environmental impacts generated by their buildings. Green building literature provides a clear framework on the range of practices, indicators, measures, and methods to assess the sustainable performance of a building (Nilashi et al. 2015; Zhao et al., 2019). However, scientific literature makes few distinctions between private and public sector buildings (Baird et al., 2022). The purpose of this research is to paint a portrait of the practices used in 2022 by public sector property asset managers in Quebec, who are essential stakeholders to be mobilized to succeed in the transition to more sustainable buildings. They are indeed major owners of real estate portfolios, and they are called upon to demonstrate the State’s exemplarity. Some 88 public sector property asset managers responded to a survey of 188 questions distributed in Quebec between December 2021 and March 2022 relating to: (1) the description of their organization and their real estate portfolio; (2) the practices operationalized by their organization in property management; (3) the practices to manage environmental impacts and (4) the practices to manage social impacts. The analysis of the responses to the survey shows that respondents consider themselves effective in terms of managing internal risks relating to their buildings without, however, concretely considering the impacts they generate on external stakeholders. Waste, water, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management practices are given more priority than energy management practices. This is explained by the low cost of hydroelectricity in Quebec. These environmental impact management practices are, however, supplanted by the interest in practices for managing the health, safety, comfort, and well-being of internal building stakeholders, which can be explained by the consequences resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. To perform better, respondents point out that they would need training in sustainable building management and budgetary resources, particularly for the maintenance and upkeep of their assets. The sustainable development objectives pursued by the organizations of the respondents still need to be integrated into the contracts with the various suppliers. Finally, the fight against climate change and the development of resilience to natural disasters are not or hardly integrated into the management of their operations. This research could be replicated in different parts of the world to compare these practices with those used in Quebec. It could also be taken up in Quebec to analyze the evolution in time of sustainable institutional building management practices.