GID is a fully integrated and privately held real estate company that maintains a premier network of more than 11,000 properties. Windsor Communities is GID’s multifamily property management arm.
Founded in 1960, GID has developed or acquired more than 79,000 apartment units and 16.8 million square feet of commercial space.
A focus on sustainability and innovation has always been a strong emphasis at GID. However investor and consumer views on sustainability continue to evolve, and recent investment trends have emboldened Windsor to further advance their sustainability initiatives.
Committed to creating and supporting sustainable communities, Windsor has prioritized a wide array of sustainability initiatives such as LED lighting, EV charging, and solar to meet rising investor expectations, attract great talent, stay ahead of fast-evolving regulations, and provide homes that meet the needs of today and tomorrow.
Our vision is to create and support sustainable communities everywhere that we operate and where our employees live, because we live and work in the same places where our properties are located as well.
Phil Carmody, VP, Head of ESG and Corporate Programs, GID
Project Outcomes
- Created a program to help sell solar back to residents
- Identified rebate programs for greater savings
- Recommended sustainably-aligned target solutions
- Managed 260+ LED lighting projects
- Installed 200+ EV ports
- Improved facility experience in 60+ communities nationwide
The Challenge: Turning Bold ESG goals into reality
Windsor has always proactively tackled sustainability issues, setting aggressive energy waste and greenhouse gas reduction targets to meet by 2027. Even with proactive action underway, Windsor faced fast-approaching deadlines to reduce its carbon footprint. Since 2019 Windsor had already seen a 2.5% decrease in energy use intensity – but there was still work to do.
Hitting these ambitious targets required extensive and fast-moving action. However, the sheer scale of Windsor’s portfolio and strong regional leadership infrastructure prevented them from making progress at an acceptable rate.
Windsor sought a way to augment its team to supplement limited resources and add technical expertise to stay ahead of new technologies and regulatory requirements. Windsor also needed to drive decision-making centrally to speed up planning, budgeting, and implementation progress within their corporate and regional teams.
The Solution: Accelerating Operational Efficiency and Implementation Confidence
By partnering with SitelogIQ, Windsor was able to standardize its approach to energy efficiency and solar, enabling Windsor to make quick and efficient progress on its sustainability targets. Windsor’s limited internal team is better able to manage the program by consolidating to one program manager. Implementation and construction teams were empowered to coordinate more effectively with regional and site-level teams and roll out a consistent best-practice approach faster through a single point of accountability into one unified program.
With a thorough understanding of the unique needs of each Windsor property relative to their geographic location, the SitelogIQ team proved successful in recommending solutions that support Windsor’s sustainability targets while accounting for rebates and other incentive programs the Windsor team may be eligible for to reduce overall costs. SitelogIQ’s National account pricing through diligent grouped site-level program planning enables Windsor to get the best cost possible for their rollouts.
With full ownership of the program, SitelogIQ manages project timelines of each property and regularly communicates progress to Windsor team members: providing status updates, data reporting, announcing deadlines, and more in weekly meetings to proactively monitor the success of the program and instill the speed-to-success model. Since 2018, the SIQ team has successfully managed over 260 LED lighting projects and over 70 EV charging projects, providing Windsor with the data needed to showcase their quick and steady contributions to their sustainability targets.
The way we budgeted, onboarded vendors and executed projects was done differently by each team member. By bringing us together and closer to the operations team, we’ve strengthened our asset management function. They have a much stronger oversight centrally across our portfolio so we’re able to budget more effectively.
Phil Carmody, VP, Head of ESG and Corporate Programs, GID
EV Spotlight
Deploying several technologies that support their goals, the Windsor team is committed to encouraging greater EV adoption by providing accessibility to EV chargers both at home and in the workplace. With SitelogIQ’s extensive knowledge in successfully managing deployments of multiple technologies, the Windsor team was able to understand their EV infrastructure and future-proof an EV charger program that identified rebate programs to drive greater savings and standardize the approach to implementing EV across the vast real estate portfolio.
- Solution knowledge and technical expertise
- In-depth knowledge of properties and on-site staff
- Multifamily expertise including lessons learned from peers
- Highly organized program management approach with detailed tracking
- Scale to deliver nationwide