Building Baselines: Tamara Chernomordik
Tamara Chernomordik, Kimco Realty’s Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, brings a rare blend of expertise to the challenge of driving sustainability in commercial real estate. Her interdisciplinary background fosters a systems-thinking approach, aligning environmental and social initiatives with core business objectives. In this conversation, she shares how structured governance, industry collaboration, and a focus on actionable data are transforming sustainability from aspiration into operational reality.
From bridging landlord–tenant data gaps to advancing industry-wide resilience strategies, Tamara offers insights on what it takes to deliver lasting impact at scale. Thank you to Tamara for sharing her expertise, vision, and passion for building a more sustainable future.
Your academic background spans civil engineering, finance, and international business, and you've evolved through multiple corporate responsibility leadership roles at Kimco Realty. How has this interdisciplinary perspective shaped your approach to corporate responsibility, and what unique insights do you bring to driving sustainability strategies that might differ from more traditional approaches?
My academic and professional journey across civil engineering, finance, and international business has fundamentally shaped the way I approach corporate responsibility by reinforcing a systems-thinking mindset. This perspective allows me to see how decisions in one part of an organization ripple through others, and to design sustainability strategies that are integrated rather than isolated. When I joined Kimco Realty, there was already a solid corporate responsibility program in place, and my focus has been on continuing and enhancing that foundation rather than reinventing the wheel. One of my first priorities was strengthening our governance structure by working with our corporate responsibility steering committee, ensuring that the right people — both key decision-makers and implementers — are involved in setting goals, making informed choices, and driving progress forward.
My background in change management has also been critical, as meaningful sustainability work often requires shifts in both culture and day-to-day operations — changes that take time and thoughtful orchestration. I don’t see my role as making individual changes on the ground but rather as guiding and empowering the teams who do, making sure they have clear direction and support while aligning their work with larger business objectives.
Whether an initiative needs top-down leadership, grassroots adoption, or both, I help make sure it happens where it needs to, when it needs to. This interdisciplinary path has also fueled a love of continuous learning, which is essential in this field; the landscape is always shifting with new regulations, evolving stakeholder expectations, and constant innovation, so staying curious and adaptable is key. I love diving deep into different parts of the business to understand how things work and what needs to change to keep moving our sustainability strategy forward. Altogether, this combination of systems thinking, structured governance, practical change management, and a commitment to lifelong learning gives me a distinctive approach. It ensures that our sustainability strategies at Kimco are not just aspirational but actionable and embedded in how we operate every day.
As Chair of ICSC's ESG Committee and an active member of multiple industry sustainability councils, you're clearly investing time in driving systemic change. Can you share a specific initiative or breakthrough where you've seen collaborative industry efforts translate into meaningful environmental or social impact?
One initiative I’m particularly proud of is the launch of ICSC’s ESG Committee. Establishing this committee was an accomplishment in itself — I served as its first vice chair and later stepped into the chair role. What made this effort especially unique was the deliberate focus on bringing landlords and tenants together at the same table. The launch phase was undoubtedly the most challenging, but it laid the groundwork for something powerful: a dedicated channel for industry-wide dialogue that goes far beyond individual relationships. Through this committee, both landlords and retailers have gained invaluable insight into each other’s strategies, challenges, and priorities. This shared understanding has already fostered stronger relationships and opened the door for more effective collaboration. Now we’re better positioned to align our efforts and move sustainability initiatives forward in ways that deliver tangible environmental and social benefits across the industry.
Given your extensive experience across REITs, management consulting, and retail industries, how do you view the evolving relationship between corporate responsibility and business performance, particularly in the real estate sector where environmental sustainability and financial returns are increasingly interconnected?
In my experience, a corporate responsibility program must be fully aligned with the business from day one — and that alignment has to remain a constant focus over time. If there’s a disconnect, the program is essentially set up to fail. This perspective has shaped how I approach sustainability and responsibility initiatives: ensuring we innovate where it truly matters, engage the right stakeholders at the right times, and carefully assess risks and opportunities along the way. At Kimco, we have the advantage of building on a program that was launched over a decade ago, giving us a long-term view of where we’ve been and where we need to go next. I firmly believe there is a strong business case for corporate responsibility, especially in the real estate sector where environmental performance and financial returns are deeply linked. It’s about identifying and delivering those unique value adds that make sustainability a strategic driver of performance and resilience.
The utility side is critical here because utilities hold much of this information, and being able to tap into it easily means everyone is speaking the same data language. This would dramatically improve program design, streamline reporting, and help drive down costs while advancing energy efficiency and decarbonization goals in a way that’s collaborative rather than fragmented.
Let’s dream a bit. Tomorrow, you wake up, and every utility can deliver a complete data set for the built world, including all building types, when owners or managers ask for it. Utility program owners can use it to empower and inform their programs. Customers and building owners can use it to make smarter decisions about their buildings. What are you most excited about and why? What else do you think is possible with this whole building data access?
If we woke up tomorrow with seamless access to complete, accurate whole-building data for every building type, I would be most excited about how much smarter and more strategic we could be in managing and operating buildings. In the REIT and property ownership space, triple net lease structures are common, which often creates a split incentive between landlords and tenants — one party pays the utility bills while the other controls the equipment or building systems. With robust, accessible data, both landlords and tenants could finally have a shared, transparent understanding of energy use and performance, unlocking new opportunities for cost savings, smarter capital planning, and sustainability initiatives that benefit everyone. The utility side is critical here because utilities hold much of this information, and being able to tap into it easily means everyone is speaking the same data language. This would dramatically improve program design, streamline reporting, and help drive down costs while advancing energy efficiency and decarbonization goals in a way that’s collaborative rather than fragmented. The potential for alignment and innovation in this scenario is tremendous.
As a national leader in corporate responsibility, you sit at a unique intersection of real estate investment, sustainability, and data strategy. When you look across Kimco's portfolio and the broader market, what are the most critical data points that are frustratingly out of reach, and how are those gaps constraining your ability to make informed decisions about building efficiency, resilience, and decarbonization?
One of the most critical and persistently challenging data gaps we face is gaining clear visibility into tenant energy use within the triple net lease structure. While we have strong collaboration with our tenants, the reality is that across our national portfolio there are thousands of tenants generating tens of thousands of individual data points. This scale makes it incredibly difficult to consistently access, standardize, and analyze energy use information. Even defining what constitutes a single “building” can be complex when multiple tenants, spaces, and metering arrangements are involved. Without this level of granular, reliable data, it constrains our ability to fully understand where tenant space efficiency opportunities lie. Bridging this gap is important for accelerating building resilience and sustainability at scale.
Insurance dynamics are rapidly shifting, with carriers increasingly incorporating climate risk data. You've seen this from multiple industry vantage points - how are you seeing data demonstrating the financial resilience of high-performance buildings, and what's the most effective way to translate those insights into a language that moves capital, engages stakeholders, and accelerates market-wide transformation?
One of the biggest challenges with climate risk data today is that it remains heavily tied to geographic indicators — it’s primarily about pinpointing latitude and longitude to locate risk areas. But that only tells part of the story. Where climate risk modeling really needs to evolve is in incorporating detailed building attributes: what proactive measures have been taken to mitigate risk, how resilient the structures actually are, and how prepared they are to ensure safety and maintain operations during and after extreme events. In our industry, it’s critical to go beyond knowing a property’s zip code — we need to include data that shows how resilient that property truly is.
This level of insight has real financial implications: resilient buildings bounce back faster, keep communities and tenants functioning — people still need access to grocery stores and essential services — and help secure steady cash flow, which investors and insurers both value. The more we can integrate building resiliency and community impact data into climate risk models, the clearer it becomes which assets are ahead of the curve in managing risk. This not only informs smarter portfolio-level decisions but also provides a compelling, quantifiable narrative for stakeholders and capital providers: resilience isn’t just about safety; it directly protects revenue and reduces exposure. Communicating this link clearly is key to aligning insurance, capital flows, and corporate strategy in a way that drives market-wide transformation.
Given your vantage point spanning engineering, finance, and corporate responsibility across the real estate sector, what fundamental transformation do you see coming in the next decade - not just as a possibility, but as an inevitability? How will the intersection of technology, sustainability, and investment strategy fundamentally redesign how we conceive of, develop, and manage commercial real estate assets?
Looking ahead, I see the next decade bringing about an inevitable transformation driven by the convergence of technology, regulatory evolution, and market-driven incentives — all fundamentally reshaping how we plan, operate, and invest in commercial real estate. No matter which administration is in office, we can expect the regulatory landscape to continue evolving at city, state, and federal levels. That’s just one part of the equation, though.
The real game-changer will be advancements in technology, especially AI, which will automate and streamline access to critical data, particularly utility and building performance data. Immediate, accurate data unlocks the ability to design smarter programs and make faster, better-informed decisions at both the building and portfolio levels. This is especially significant in triple net lease structures, where clear, shared data has long been a hurdle to scaling efficiency and decarbonization efforts.
As data becomes more accessible, I expect to see a wave of innovative tools — whether AI-driven platforms, advanced data analytics, or engineering solutions — that translate raw utility data into actionable insights for landlords, tenants, and investors alike. These tools won’t just track carbon; they will become powerful business instruments that demonstrate financial value, incentivize efficiency, and accelerate progress toward net zero goals.
Ultimately, the combination of regulatory evolution, market incentives, and rapid technological advancement will redefine what high-performance buildings look like and how they deliver value. We’re moving toward a future where sustainability and profitability aren’t parallel goals but deeply intertwined, with data as the bridge that makes it possible to deliver both at scale.
Kimco Realty's 2024 Corporate Responsibility Report
Kimco Realty’s 2024 Corporate Responsibility Report showcases how the company’s disciplined, results-driven approach to sustainability is fueling long-term value for tenants, communities, and shareholders. From expanding low-carbon transportation infrastructure to a fully allocated Green Bond, the report highlights milestone achievements that strengthen the resilience and performance of Kimco’s high-quality retail destinations.
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