ProLogis' Jeff Schwartz

There are a lot of bragging rights associated with the name ProLogis. A visit to the Denver-based industrial REIT’s website reveals that ProLogis now represents more than 436 million sf of warehouse distribution space in 103 markets around the globe–the world’s largest, the site does not hesitate to point out. But traditional images of industrial space comes with images of tractor trailers, grumbling engines and oil stains left in their wake, not the greenest environment one can imagine. But chairman and chief executive officer Jeffrey Schwartz begs to differ, and here too the REIT has worked to gain some impressive bragging rights. As Schwartz pointed out in a recent exclusive interview, ProLogis is the only real estate firm to join the Chicago Climate Exchange (and a visit to that website bears this out) and in May became the first real estate company to issue a sustainability report as an adjunct to its annual report to shareholders. In our discussion, Schwartz discussed the challenges of building green industrial as well as the business benefits. And he takes a hard look at how the US is doing generally, and how much more we need to do.

GlobeSt.com: How much of your portfolio is green?

Schwartz: If you define green as being more energy-efficient, as reducing greenhouse gas emissions beyond what is normal, I would argue that 100% of our development would classify as sustainable. In every country where we develop–all 22–we build to a higher standard than the average building in that market, and with that comes significantly higher energy efficiency. An airtight building with less leakage of heating or air conditioning is an easy way to save massive amounts of energy and, of course, greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a little more expensive to build a higher-quality building, but we are building a long-term sustainability business on a global platform. That has to start with a more sustainable footprint, even before you get to the other things that people think are a lot sexier and more exotic–solar panels or wind turbines—all of which we do.