Engineering ESG: Cortland’s Sustainable Real Estate Leader

Yasha Chaturvedi's journey into sustainability leadership began in STEM. 

Starting as an electrical engineer, she initially focused on designing and optimising systems. As her career progressed, she recognised a broader opportunity. 

"I realised that I like to create solutions which are more robust and scalable in nature," she explains.

Today, as Director of Sustainability at Cortland, Yasha plays a key part in enterprise-wide environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives for the real estate investment firm.

"Aligning building performance with financial strategy to create sustainable solutions can drive emission reductions while supporting healthier environments," she says.

Yasha serves on the Advisory Board of Bold Impact ATL, a network of changemakers shaping equity, leadership, and sustainable growth across Atlanta. With the World Cup coming to the city in 2026, Bold Impact’s SustainTheGame™ initiative aims to highlight Atlanta’s growing role in sustainability and global collaboration – an effort Yasha supports by fostering innovation, partnerships and community resilience.

As Atlanta prepares to welcome the world, its sustainability journey offers an inspiring example of how local leadership can ripple into global impact. “It’s about empowering people to lead, collaborate, and build systems that endure,” she says."

Bridging ambition with operational reality

Bold ESG commitments can inspire progress, but delivering them means navigating practical constraints: limited budgets, legacy systems, data limitations and changing compliance requirements.

"Sustainability goals are long term in nature while the business is short term," Yasha explains. 

She feels that the solution lies in breaking down larger ESG goals into scalable steps that align with business practices and create momentum. 

"We can create slow steady progress today and that becomes a much larger impact for tomorrow," she says.

Building momentum at Cortland

Cortland has expanded its sustainability programme, strengthening its ESG performance and achieving top-tier GRESB ratings for two of its flagship funds. The company has also aligned its investment strategy with the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), reinforcing its commitment to responsible investment practices.

“Sustainability has moved from being a supporting element to becoming a driver of resilience, performance and community impact,” she explains.

Becoming an ESG leader

Yasha focuses on connecting financial performance with real-world impact. She believes sustainability works best when it’s built into everyday decisions rather than treated as an add-on. Her approach brings together investment insight and operational action, ensuring that ESG principles guide both strategy and execution. “Combining financial and operational decisions so that sustainability and performance go hand in hand,” Yasha says. For her, leadership in ESG is about being consistent, transparent and forward-looking, turning long-term goals into measurable results.

The role of energy in sustainability

Energy and utilities are integral to building operations throughout their lifecycle. 

Yasha says: “Partnerships are at the heart of sustainability. We cannot solve the challenges of decarbonisation, climate risk or community resilience alone. 

“It takes collaboration bringing together diverse expertise, aligning interests and building momentum collectively. Partnerships turn ambition into action, and action into impact.”

True progress happens when industry, policymakers, investors and communities work in sync. Collaborative ecosystems accelerate innovation, enable data transparency, and ensure equitable outcomes. Whether it’s scaling retrofit solutions, aligning capital with sustainability goals, or creating pathways for circular economies, partnerships are the connective tissue that drive transformation. In today’s complex landscape, no single entity holds all the answers, but together, we can build solutions that are both resilient and regenerative.

From strategy to execution

With the foundation set through decarbonisation planning and responsible investment alignment, attention is turning toward identifying and advancing scalable initiatives across the portfolio.

“Ultimately, it’s about turning long-term commitments into measurable progress,” she says.

“I believe innovation, from new technologies to creative partnerships, will be key to scaling solutions in ways that are both practical and impactful. 

“Real estate is right at the centre of the climate challenge, which means it can also be a big part of the solution.”