2025 Highwoods Corporate Resiliency Report | ESG, Sustainability & Real Estate Performance - Flipbook - Page 30
2 0 2 5 CO R P O RATE RESI LIENCY REPORT
WATER
Water costs continue to rise across the country due to the
growing cost of upgrading aging utility infrastructure and
water scarcity. We are actively managing these risks by
closely monitoring the water performance of our managed
portfolio in ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, monitoring
interval water data for select assets, installing high efficiency
equipment and technologies and providing guidance to our
coworkers and customers on water conservation practices.
In new developments, we target a 30-40% water reduction
over the LEED certification baseline to help meet our water
reduction goals.
In 2025, we continued to install water leak detection sensors
that use the Internet of Things (IOT) technology to provide
real-time alerts to team members of potential water leaks. To
date, we have invested more than $1 million in this initiative,
deploying over 11,000 sensors and increasing our portfolio
coverage to 100%. Notable saves across our portfolio in 2025
included a water heater failure on an upper floor that occurred
Gateway
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MCKINNEY & OLIVE | DALLAS
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after hours and a plumbing overflow in a customer’s restroom.
In both cases, the immediate notification of the IOT technology
prevented property damage and successfully mitigated major
water loss events.
Additional water efficiency efforts across our portfolio include
the installation of smart irrigation controllers at properties with
expansive landscapes to better align irrigation schedules with
local weather conditions and plant moisture requirements.
Additionally, we provide training to our engineering team
on water efficiency best practices, including cooling tower
optimization, leak detection and condensate recovery.
In 2025, we transitioned our water goal to an intensity-based
metric based on the re-established 2016 baseline. While our
water reduction goal remains at 10%, we are assessing water
performance in 2025 and 2026 to understand how current
usage levels are affecting water consumption.
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WATER SENSOR
