by Brianna Crandall — March 22, 2017 — A collaborative effort announced recently between the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Greenprint Center for Building Performance and sustainability software provider Measurabl is expected to improve sustainability and building performance tracking for more than 20,000 commercial buildings covering 3.7 billion square feet around the globe. These properties constitute the collective portfolio of Greenprint members and Measurabl subscribers, who together represent the world’s largest database of sustainability-focused commercial real estate owners and investors, say the partners.
The ULI Greenprint Center is a global consortium of leading real estate owners, investors, and strategic partners committed to improving the environmental performance of the real estate industry through value-enhancing strategies. In the past 6 years, Greenprint members have reportedly decreased energy consumption by 13.7 percent, greenhouse gas emissions by 16.5 percent, and water use by 10.9 percent, saving $42 million in utility costs in this past year alone.
Measurabl, said to be the most widely adopted sustainability software for real estate, helps companies collect, report, and act upon non-financial data: utility data (energy, water) and travel data. Greenprint and Measurabl’s work supports the principle that what is not measured cannot be managed.
Both organizations say they are committed to working with the real estate industry to promote transparency and utilize data to drive investment decisions.
Greenprint members, such as PGIM Real Estate, ProLogis, LaSalle Investment Management, and CalPERS, join the more than 2 billion square feet of pre-existing building data in Measurabl’s system from users such as CBRE Global Investors, Boston Properties, and USAA Real Estate Company.
The Greenprint-Measurabl collaboration was established in part to reduce the complexity of sustainability data collection, management, and reporting. Moving forward, the combined scale of Greenprint and Measurabl is expected to provide the real estate industry a range of unique benefits including investment-grade sustainability benchmarks for buildings and portfolios, as well as unique insight into relative performance benchmarks and trends.
Buildings are responsible for 40 percent of energy consumption, 25 percent of water consumption, and 33 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, says ULI. Consequently, the built environment has a key role to play in improving sustainability and mitigating climate change. The new Greenprint-Measurabl partnership will ensure that Greenprint members, who collectively manage over a $1 trillion in assets, have the most advanced data collection and reporting tools available, says the group.
For more information visit the Greenprint or Measurabl Web sites.
