(Photo: CBRE headquarters in Los Angeles. Credit: Robert Downs Photography)CBRE registered and benchmarked a record-breaking number of buildings in the Energy Star program last year, according to the company’s new corporate responsibility report.
The world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm says that throughout 2017, they added 6,197 buildings representing more than 370.7 million square feet to the program.
“We are forging environmentally responsible business solutions across the company — from energy-saving measures at the 5.5-plus billion square feet of property we manage to the green building financing we arrange to the ESG investment policies that govern our real estate investment management and development services businesses,” said Robert E. Sulentic, CBRE’s president and CEO.
The company says its labeled buildings under management represent 3.5% of all the US office buildings labeled in Energy Star. “We manage another 907 properties with a score of 75 or above that are either currently in the Energy Star application process or are eligible to apply,” the report notes.
Employees receive training with EPA Energy Star Portfolio Manager as part of the Building Owners and Managers Association International Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP). This program teaches industry professionals how to reduce energy consumption and costs with proven no- and low-cost strategies for optimizing equipment, people, and practices, CBRE says. Last year the BEEP curriculum became required for all of the company’s national engineering staff.
Last year CBRE reports making a significant improvement in energy efficiency with their core office portfolio, which totals 1,707 buildings: “This portfolio has an average Energy Star score of 80.3 and achieved an average reduction in site energy use of 16.2% compared to prior year.”
They also created the CBRE Climate Change Champion Award last year that gets presented to asset services teams for managed properties achieving a 10% or greater year-over-year increase in their Energy Star score. In 2018, the award went to teams at 22 properties whose managed buildings collectively reduced GHG emissions by 10,188 metric tons of CO2e.
CBRE’s 2017 annual report, the company’s 11th, has a “sharing the responsibility” theme. David Pogue, global director of corporate responsibility for CBRE, told Energy Manager Today earlier this year that he’s leading a group pursuing “shared advantage,” their own shared value that involves building healthy communities.
“Commercial real estate is at the nexus of many issues — waste, water, energy, emissions, health,” Pogue said. “We have a particular responsibility as a real estate services company to help our clients and the whole industry move forward.”
The report was produced in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative standards, the company says. It also shows CBRE’s progress toward implementing the UN Global Compact’s 10 principles, and includes disclosures for the real estate sector developed by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board.
Read the full 2017 report here.
