From Sustainability Dashboard Tools LLC, the Bloomington, Ind.-based developer of an advanced sustainability reporting system, comes word of the 2012 GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) Report, which finds real-estate managers and investors are becoming increasingly focused on sustainability issues, with 80 percent now having a sustainability strategy in place.
Additionally, the report, which includes data from 450 property-management companies and funds around the globe involved with 36,000 properties representing more than $1.3 trillion in assets, finds:
• Sixty percent of the respondents are collecting and reporting energy-consumption data.
• A large percentage of managers/investors defined as “Green Starters”—meaning just starting to develop sustainability policies—in 2011 had moved to the next category, “Green Talk.”
These companies are now “putting thoughts into actions,” Stephen Ashkin, chief executive officer of Sustainability Dashboard Tools, said. “The Green Talkers have actually implemented sustainability measures, along with a means to collect the related data.”
• The portfolios of more than half of the respondents include properties that have earned LEED certification.
• In Australia and New Zealand, nearly 90 percent of managers/investors work with tenants to reduce the environmental impact of their properties.
“This is very important,” Ashkin said. “They are helping to create a culture of sustainability in which everyone realizes that they have a role in furthering green and sustainable initiatives.”
To download the report, click here.