Managing our portfolio

Commerical Office Tenants Want Green

Survey Shows Value of Sustainability Initiatives


NORWALK, CONN., December 3, 2010 – Green building initiatives are a key influencer when tenants decide to sign a commercial real estate lease, according to a survey by GE Capital Real Estate.

The survey, conducted over the past year, included more than 2,220 office tenants in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, the UK, Spain and Japan. An average of 50% of those polled say green building initiatives are a high priority.

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Japan (59%), Canada (52%) and Sweden (52%) placed the greatest importance on green building practices, compared with only 43% in the U.S., the lowest of the countries surveyed.

Green building practices include energy efficiency measures (lighting upgrades, energy audits), recycling and waste reduction programs, water conservation practices, rebate sharing information (tax credits, utility credits) and indoor environmental quality controls, including efficient building ventilation.

The survey also covered energy certifications. In the survey, only 40% of U.S. tenants rated energy certifications “valuable”. However, in Sweden (51%), the UK (46%) and Spain (46%) tenants see energy certifications like LEED and BREEAM as valuable factors in their building choice. Surprisingly, only 29% of Canadian tenants and 30% of Japanese tenants thought these types of certifications were valuable.

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"We’ve seen distinct and increasing interest in sustainability across our global tenant base," said Michael Rowan, president, Global Asset Management at GE Capital Real Estate.


According to Lisa Coca, the company’s global sustainability leader, "We are actively exploring programs that leverage technology to drive tenant satisfaction and retention. We have pilot programs underway, including the installation of electric vehicle chargers in our InterPark garages and deployment of the Millennial Net Energy Management System (EMS) in select assets.

"Millennial Net provides a wireless sensor network-based EMS. It centralizes management of HVAC systems, giving tenants more transparency and control over their energy consumption to reduce costs."


To date, one Millennial Net installation has yielded, on average, projected annual energy savings of 33%, Coca said. Another asset, a 46,000 square foot office building, is projected to have annual savings of 50%, all of which would accrue to the tenant under the current lease structure.


"We’re making progress in other ways as well," she noted. "In Canada, for example, we’re developing 15 industrial solar photovoltaic projects, and in the U.S., we’ve launched ArdenACCESS, which enables more efficient building operations via advanced software tools, analytics and fault detection."

Archive
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Archive