by Shane Henson — October 26, 2012—Progress is being made within the real estate industry to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions for individual properties and portfolios, according to a new report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Greenprint Center for Building Performance, an organization founded to lead the global real estate industry toward improved environmental performance, focusing on energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions, water and waste.
Volume 3 of the Greenprint Performance Report includes building performance data on 2,703 property submissions representing 65 million square meters (700 million square feet) in 46 countries. The property data was submitted to the Greenprint Center by its 29 members and 12 affiliated participants.
Year-over-year comparisons, between 2010 and 2011, were available for 1,628 properties in Greenprint’s database. For those properties, the report shows an 8.2-percent reduction in carbon emissions and a 4.4-percent reduction in energy use.
These seemingly small gains have a big impact on the environment. Greenprint says the decrease in carbon emissions from those properties represents the equivalent of nearly 1.06 million barrels of oil not consumed, more than 89,100 cars taken off the road, and nearly 11.7 million trees planted.
While the report’s results are specific to the property information submitted by Greenprint members, the sample is a promising sign that “the industry is moving toward more environmentally conscious building practices and policies,” said Greenprint Chairman Charles B. Leitner, III. “These findings reinforce the potential of Greenprint to catalyze industry behavior and have a positive impact on the environment, while enhancing the value of property investments.”
