Unattractive premium rents on buildings with sustainable specifications – a key factor holding back many occupiers from embracing sustainable buildings – will soon disappear in Europe, according to research by CoreNet Global.
The CRE 2010: Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility report says sustainability is no longer the preserve of “tree-huggers” and the “sandals and lentils” brigade.
Based on interviews with corporate real estate leaders and senior executives from 17 organisations – including ABN Amro, Dell Computer Corporation, Royal & Sun Alliance, Ford, Tishman Speyer and CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) – it predicts that sustainable specifications will be standard in new corporate buildings by 2010.
CBRE senior director Nicholas Axford, who was part of the research team, said: “As construction techniques for sustainable buildings develop and people become more familiar with them, the costs will go down.”
Energy efficient buildings will also become increasingly attractive to occupiers as life-cycle costing becomes the norm, he said.
With the real estate sector currently accounting for 40% of energy consumption in the European Union, the report concluded that corporate real estate executives will have a key role in managing, implementing and monitoring the sustainability agenda within a corporation.
Competition and other pressures will mean that most large companies will be reporting on their social and environmental performance by 2010, the report says, although this is unlikely to be required by law.
Companies including Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, ABN Amro and Ford already see sustainability as a fundamental aspect of their business activities.
Axford said: “What really impressed me is that we were talking to hard-nosed, practical heads of real estate.
“Sustainability isn’t necessarily the most important thing to them in the short term, but it’s certainly influencing them more and more.”
References: EGi News 11/06/04
