In collaboration with ASU’s CareerCatalyst, Hines launched a comprehensive sustainability training program, including six weeks of live training for Hines ESG ambassadors featuring presentations and working sessions, as well as a company-wide “Carbon 101” course.
Hines enhanced its internal learning portal with on-demand ESG and sustainability resources, upskilling employees in their professional development and sustainability knowledge.
Background
Hines has been a leader in real estate investment, development, and management for more than six decades. Founded by Gerald D. Hines in 1957, Hines is now one of the largest privately held real estate firms in the world, with a global presence and extensive experience across all property types and investment-risk profiles. The company strives to lead their industry in innovation and ESG, and they are committed to leveraging their business expertise to tackle the pressing challenges everyone faces as people living on a warming planet.
Through their comprehensive ESG strategy, Hines aims to create value for its stakeholders while contributing to a more sustainable and resilient built environment, which is responsible for 39% of all carbon generated across the world.
Challenge
Embarking on an even bolder path to support combating the global climate crisis, Hines wanted to design a program that would educate and inspire their employees around the company’s firmwide ESG initiatives.
Hines needed to upskill their leaders responsible for driving this change, as well as provide scalable solutions to help educate their entire company on priorities around carbon and ESG.
Solution
Hines partnered with ASU, home to the nation’s first School of Sustainability, to create an education initiative for two primary groups within the organization:
Hines Regional ESG Champions: Educating key individuals within the organization about:
- The company’s climate commitments.
- The sustainability and ESG issues related to the commitment.
- The significance of being a carbon leader within the firm.
All Hines employees: Educating across the organization with Carbon 101 training that provides:
- Essential knowledge regarding the company’s climate commitment.
- Key initiatives for reducing embodied carbon.
Content Development
ASU faculty at the School of Sustainability in the College of Global Futures collaborated with Hines ESG leaders to create a customized ESG curriculum overview. The virtual curriculum encouraged discussion and ideation with Hines’ ESG leadership and ASU professors as well as breakout sessions and team projects. Topics ranged from community impact and social programs to setting science-based targets and achieving net zero operational carbon at Hines properties.
Learning Management and Experience
In order to scale delivery and ease of access, ASU converted learning assets for seamless integration into Hines’ learning management systems. ASU utilized its research-backed instructional design practices, leveraging interactive learning objects, readings, videos and self-paced, on-demand Carbon 101 training modules to enhance the Hines training with the most relevant ESG content.
Results
At the end of Hines’ first ESG Ambassador cohort, which included 32 employees, teams researched and presented a capstone project on an ESG innovation that could be implemented at the firm. Participants also prepared their own plans for better integrating ESG into their day-to-day work.
Moving forward, Hines plans to refine and expand the ambassador cohort based on participant feedback and create Hines and ASU co-developed courses on specific ESG topics.
The program will expand across the organization of nearly 5,000 to help all Hines employees take an active role in supporting and achieving the company’s ESG goals.
Connect to grow with ASU
Through CareerCatalyst, ASU applies its unparalleled core of knowledge to develop world-class workforce education solutions designed to increase engagement, creativity and productivity for learners, while aligning to your business strategies and workforce needs. To learn how you can design and implement a scalable workforce education solution for your organization, contact us.
