|
|
|
Managing the Unavoidable: A List of 5 Musts for the Real Estate Industry
As winter transitions to spring, the news is full of stories about record high temperatures throughout the United States. In Europe, it's been a winter of record lows. These possible indications of climate change prompted us at Green Edge to focus our sustainability lens on risk management. We believe that the ramifications of climate change ---- or global weirding ---- are unavoidable and must be managed. To those who fail to do so, beware!
If your business is real estate, here's what we think you should be doing to factor climate change into your risk management strategies.
1. Build assumptions about extreme weather events into your planning. Consider risks from rising sea levels, more intense storms, flooding and surge damage. Underwriting these risks based on historical climate data is no longer sufficient. The payoff from climate preparedness could be substantial: According to Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurance firm, in 2011 insured losses in the U.S. from weather related events topped $105 billion, even more than the record-breaking losses incurred in 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina.
2. Green your real estate relationships so that the risks and rewards of sustainable initiatives are appropriately allocated. As thousands of regulations across the country increasingly demand that green features be incorporated into the built environment, make sure that your ongoing rights are protected and your future obligations are limited. New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington DC, Seattle and other jurisdictions too numerous to name are phasing in green mandates that today's leases, acquisitions and loans will be subject to. Make sure you are protected.
3. Focus on reducing energy and water consumption as a strategy to limit your exposure to price and availability volatility. Water shortages are a way of life in the west. Energy blackouts and brownouts are no longer limited to the developing world. In the past five years, energy costs have skyrocketed, bottomed out and are again on the rise. Plug up your leaky buildings and faucets and reduce your exposure. read more |
Greening Your Real Estate: How Does That Rate?
As part of our in-depth focus on real estate, Green Edge is evaluating the correlation between a company's overall green rankings and their green building performance. We searched high and low among the hundred-plus green company ranking systems for a correlation of these two factors on a company-by-company basis and we didn't find very much. Taking matters into our own hands, we decided to test drive CSRHub, a new online sustainability and corporate social responsibility rating system, with the green building correlation question in mind. CSRHub provides CSR ratings and information on nearly 5,000 companies throughout the world. Their ratings are arrived at by aggregating data from 140 sources including other rating systems, sustainability analysts, NGOs and government agencies. Although CSRHub aggregates over 10 million data elements, many of which, such as energy and water use, are factors in green buildings, we found no specific information on how the 5,000 rated companies are greening their built environments.
We looked at four companies that promote leadership in green buildings to see how they were rated by CSRHub: Bank of America, Exelon, Adobe and Skanska. 
They all have made greening their facilities a focal point of their overall sustainability effort and in addition to having iconic green headquarters, they have earned at least one, and in Adobe's case three, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum certifications, the highest level possible. Interestingly, when we looked at their overall CSRHub ratings, they all fared reasonably well, in the upper 50s and 60s. The top CSRHub rating is a 76, which only three companies worldwide have achieved.
Thus anecdotally at least, we have started to confirm our suspicion that there is a correlation between a company's green building achievements and its sustainability ratings. read more
|
|
|
|
|
______
We Look Forward to Hearing from You
If you have questions about anything you've read in this newsletter or if you are wondering how to meet your own green challenges, we'd love to hear from you.
greenedgellc.com 212 317 1131 
|
|
|
|
 Hi everyone!
It's great to be back with another issue of our Green Edge Newsletter. As we continue our deep dive into greening the built environment, this month we bring you insights about managing the risks of global weirding (we want to make sure you are prepared) as well as commentary about the lack of a documented correlation between green building achievements and green company rankings. Our goal is to bring you information that will make a difference for you and the success of your organizations. As always, I welcome your input and look forward to working with you to make our world a greener place.
Happy Spring,
|
|
Some Fast Facts about Energy Cost and Use
30% of the energy used in buildings is wasted.
$203 Billion is the amount U.S. businesses spend annually for energy.
$20 Billion is the cost savings that would be enjoyed if there were a 10% improvement in energy efficiency in commercial and industrial buildings in the U.S.
70% is the amount by which greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 1970.
|
CSRHub: A New Online Green Company Measurement Tool
CSRHub is a web-based tool that provides access to corporate social responsibility ratings and sustainability data for nearly 5,000 companies from 135 industries in 65 countries. They rate 12 indicators of employee, environment, community and governance performance and flag many special issues. Green Edge has found that CSRHub is a useful tool for tracking and benchmarking your own company's sustainability ratings, as well as those of your vendors, clients and investors.
Take a look and let us know what you think of CSRHub.
|
Green Edge Opportunity:
Greening Your Real Estate
 Don't miss out on the greatest business opportunity of our time ---- sustainability. Let Green Edge help you identify and leverage green building opportunities to transform your bottom line, strengthen brand reputation, attract positive media coverage, increase market share, reduce operating expenses and mitigate risk. Our services include:
- Energy Efficiency Retrofits & Financing
- Portfolio Enhancement Plans
- Benchmarking & Data Collection
- LEED Advisory Services
- Green Leases
- Regulatory Compliance
- Roadmaps for Improved Green Company Rankings
|
|
Green Edge Newsletter
If you'd like your company to be featured in one of the next issues of the Green Edge Newsletter, we'd love to hear from you. We are always looking for great green stories to share with our community of clients, colleagues and friends. If you missed our previous issues, link to our archives home page or our blog. The Green Edge Newsletter is published monthly by Green Edge, LLC. EDITOR: Ellen Sinreich DESIGN DIRECTOR: Sara Mears Copyright © 2012 Green Edge, LLC
|
|
