ULI Greenprint Center For Building Performance Reports Strong Progress In Reducing Energy Consumption And CO2 Emissions As Portfolio Continues To Expand

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Sep 04, 2014, 11:00 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The latest performance report published by the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) Greenprint Center for Building Performance demonstrates that some of the world's leading real estate investors are making significant progress in reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions and water usage in their existing buildings.

Volume 5 of the Greenprint Performance Report™, which measures and tracks the performance of 4,001 buildings owned by Greenprint's members, demonstrates a year-over-year reduction of 1.9 percent in energy consumption and a decline of 4.6 percent in carbon emissions. The report estimates that the reduction in carbon emissions equates to 486,581 barrels of oil not consumed, 44,048 cars taken off the road, or over 5.3 million trees planted in the past 12 months. The report also found a 1.7-percent decrease in water consumption.

The report is being released tomorrow at ULI's "Building the Resilient City" conference in San Francisco. This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Greenprint Center, and it is the fourth consecutive year that members have experienced improved building performance.

The data used in the report was submitted to the Greenprint Center by its 34 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's objective is to achieve a 50-percent reduction in the overall building emissions for its property portfolio by 2030.

The past 12 months have seen strong growth in the portfolio of buildings monitored, as the Greenprint Center continues to expand both its membership and the building data collected from members. A 24-percent increase in the number of properties covered in this year's report has resulted in a 27-percent increase in floor area that now extends to over 95 million square meters (over 1 billion square feet) of office, multifamily, industrial, retail, and hotel properties. The 4,001 buildings are located across 50 countries and accommodate more than 1.14 million people. Greenprint members hold over €540 billion (US$690 billion) of real estate assets under management.

In order to help other real estate organizations follow the leadership demonstrated by Greenprint's members, this year's report includes seven case studies of buildings and portfolios around the world that help explain the changes and best practices being used to improve environmental performance. It is hoped that this sharing of knowledge will encourage other property owners to examine what they can do to improve the performance of their buildings.

"Aligning how energy and environmental data are used around the world enables Greenprint's members and partners to manage properties and collect metrics that present a more holistic view of property performance," said Greenprint Chairman Charles B. Leitner, III. "The five-year milestone marks an important time in Greenprint's evolution. As an organization with a diverse range of global stakeholders, we strive to understand and report on a range of risks and opportunities that are driving the real estate industry toward more responsible property management and operations. Greenprint is not thinking about the past five years, but rather about collaborating with our stakeholders to develop strategies for the real estate industry for the next century."

"Greenprint continues to be an important catalyst for change, helping its members take meaningful and measurable action to advance environmental performance," commented ULI Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. "This year's annual performance report shows that for the fourth consecutive year, Greenprint members have managed to reduce both their energy consumption and carbon emissions. We hope these achievements will inspire a broader movement within the real estate sector to improve building performance."

Currently, Greenprint's members are: Aetos Capital Real Estate; AvalonBay; Beacon Capital Partners; Bentall Kennedy; Berkshire Communities; BlackRock; Blackstone Group; CalPERS; CommonWealth Partners; Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management; Equity Office Properties; First Washington Realty; GI Partners; General Investment and Development Advisors, Inc.; GLL Real Estate Partners; Granite; Grosvenor; Hines; Invesco; Jamestown Properties; Jones Lang LaSalle; LaSalle Investment Management; Miller Capital Advisory, Inc.; Paramount Group; Parkway Properties Inc; Prologis; Prudential Real Estate Investors; Rudin Management Company; Silverstein Properties; Sonae Sierra; Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.; TIAA-CREF and Tishman Speyer. The center is guided by an advisory board that includes key industry leaders from Greenprint's member companies.

In addition to working closely with its members, Greenprint continues to collaborate with its innovation partners Arup, Lutron and Skanska. It also is strengthening its ongoing collaborative efforts with the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), Center for Urban Science Progress (CUSP), the Downtown (Washington) D.C. ecoDistrict program, Energy Star, Global Buildings Performance Network (GBPN), the London Better Buildings Partnership and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).These relationships are creating opportunities for Greenprint to standardize benchmarks and monitoring tools across the global real estate industry, while addressing the specific needs of individual markets.

About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a global nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 32,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines

About the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance
The ULI Greenprint Center's mission is to lead the global real estate industry towards improved environmental performance, focusing on energy efficiency, and reduced carbon emissions, water and waste. Greenprint is a member-driven organization that achieves its goals through measurement, action and education. For additional information, visit uli.org/greenprint.

SOURCE Urban Land Institute