The standard was first awarded in 2005, when 300,000 square meters received the HQE (Haute Qualité Environnementale) certification. Some 600,000 square meters received this in the first nine months of this year. New French environmental regulations (Grenelle de l'Environnement) are aimed at reducing energy consumption across all buildings by 38% by 2020. This is now leading to the introduction of green leases, which will oblige tenants of HQE-certified buildings to follow particular practices in terms of energy consumption, with obvious implications for the management of employees.

Separately, Philippe Pelletier, head of the strategy committee of the Grenelle Building Plan, has mandated Meka Brunel, managing director of SITQ Europe, to head a group looking at how to take account of environmental standards in property valuations. "It is a question of working out an operational methodology to take account of energy performance in the valuation of assets," said Brunel.

Jones Lang LaSalle said the HQE certification is already affecting valuations. Around three-quarters of total office space above 5,000 square meters planned for delivery in 2012 and beyond will carry the standard, most of them in the periphery in the south of the French capital. It also concluded that HQE certification is accelerating leasing processes, with 57% of certified space deliverable next year already let, against 11% which is not certified.