Cass McFadden

The Sustainability Exec Making ESG Work for Business

As Vice President of Global Sustainability at multifamily real estate firm Cortland, Cass McFadden is helping redefine what ESG can look like not just in principle, but in practice. She’s helping companies think more strategically about their broader impact — and how to align it with strong business performance. One of her key responsibilities: making ESG frameworks actually work. While the term has become a corporate buzzword, McFadden takes a pragmatic approach, designing systems where environmental, social, and governance goals complement a company’s financial strategy rather than compete with it. At Cortland, that strategy is paying off: In just one year, she helped elevate the company’s GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) score from 2 to 5.

By Laura Entis