by Shane Henson — September 2, 2013—The global real estate industry continues to make progress in improving the environmental performance of existing buildings, according to a report released last week by the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Greenprint Center for Building Performance.
Volume 4 of the Greenprint Performance Report, which measures and tracks the performance of 3,232 buildings owned by Greenprint’s members, demonstrates a year-over-year reduction of 3.2 percent in energy consumption and 3.4 percent in carbon emissions. The report finds that the reduction in carbon emissions equates to nearly 268,400 barrels of oil not consumed, 24,044 cars taken off the road, and over 2.9 million trees planted in the past 12 months. The report also found a 21.4-percent increase in recycling, and only a modest 0.5-percent increase in water consumption.
Commenting on the report, Greenprint’s Chairman Charles B. Leitner, III, says that the reductions in both energy consumption and carbon emissions are very encouraging signs and a clear indication that the global real estate sector is moving in the right direction.
According to ULI, the report is unique in that it provides an open standard for measuring, benchmarking and tracking energy usage and resulting emissions at a property, fund and portfolio level. The global scope and size of the report make it the industry’s largest, most verifiable, transparent and comprehensive benchmark of energy use and carbon emissions.
The property data was submitted to the Greenprint Center by its 31 members and affiliated partners, who comprise an alliance of the world’s leading real estate owners, investors and financial institutions committed to improving environmental performance across the global property industry. Greenprint is aiming to achieve a 50-percent reduction in the overall building emissions for its property portfolio by 2030, it says.
The number of properties included in this year’s report has risen by 20 percent from last year, as Greenprint continues to expand both its membership and the building data collected from members. The portfolio has also grown by 15 percent in terms of floor area, and now includes more than 75 million square meters (more than 800 million square feet) of office, multifamily, industrial retail, and hotel property. The 3,232 buildings are located across 44 countries and accommodate more than 1.1 million people. Greenprint members hold more than $600 billion of real estate assets under management.
