IMT and DOE Reveal Green Lease Leaders

The Institute for Market Transformation and the US Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Alliance announced the 2021 Green Lease Leaders at the Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit, a virtual leadership symposium.

The 2021 Green Lease Leaders who received Gold Recognition in the landlord category included AEW Capital Management, Columbia Property Trust, CommonWealth Partners, Digital Realty, Diversified Healthcare Trust, Dream Office, Empire State Realty Trust, Federal Realty Investment Trust, First Capital REIT, GTIS Partners, Iron Mountain Data Centers, Jamestown, JBG Smith, Kimco Realty Corporation, Kite Realty Group, Link Logistics Real Estate, Prologis, Retail Opportunities Investment Corp., RPT Realty, Shorenstein and Weingarten Realty.

In all, Green Lease Leaders represent portfolios totaling more than two billion square feet. Green Lease Leaders have a cumulative four billion square feet of building space.

Green Lease Leaders was launched by IMT and the DOE Better Buildings Alliance in 2014. It is designed to recognize landlords and tenants who modernize their leases to spur collaborative action on energy efficiency, cost savings, improved air quality and sustainability in buildings.

IMT estimates that green leases can help reduce utility bills by up 22% in US office buildings alone. It says that if all leased office buildings executed green leases, the market could gain more than $3 billion in annual cost savings.

As CRE companies focus on ESG, sustainability is becoming a larger priority.

Recent research from Realty Mogul showed that sustainability is moving beyond operational cost savings. Investors are more likely to target and commit to real estate ventures that have a positive social or environmental impact. 

The report surveyed the crowdfunding platform’s community of investors, with more than 850 responding to the survey. According to the results, 70% of investors are more likely to invest in strategies that include sustainable technology upgrades, and 46% of investors are even willing to accept a lower return if the investment consists of a positive environmental impact.

Another example of sustainability’s growing reach into the CRE community: In late April, Prologis launched the first LEED v4 for Core and Shell Volume program for the US logistics real estate sector. 

The company says that this program includes more rigorous standards than the previous LEED Volume Program, launched in 2014. Prologis was the first logistics real estate developer to participate in that program.

Prologis will implement strategies for achieving high performance in sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality for its projects in the US, Latin America, Canada and Italy under the LEED v4 for the Core and Shell Volume Program.