Create, Grow, Sustain: Leading By Example

Buildings are the focus of many of the most important issues related to environmental sustainability. As the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm we are mindful of our dual responsibility to lead by example through our own actions and to provide impactful solutions for owners and occupiers.

Our environmental policy, which is part of our broader commitment to corporate responsibility, has three elements.

• First, we are focused on actions aimed at our own occupancy and ways of doing business. These include our commitment to measure and mitigate energy usage, create a sustainable procurement process, and occupy sustainable office space. We are particularly proud to have been awarded the first wellness certification for our corporate headquarters in downtown Los Angeles and our alternative workplace initiative, called “Workplace360” is helping to reimagine how office spaced is used and occupied. Additionally, our efforts have been recognised by both the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America and FTSE4GOOD Index.

• Our second strong focus is on our work for clients. We have an active training program to help our sales professionals become better advisors to clients on sustainability issues. More than 2,000 of our professionals have completed this program – the first in our sector. In addition, we achieved more than 400 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR® labels and more than 330 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Existing Building certifications at properties we manage for clients. Both are the highest totals in our industry.

• Finally, we endeavour to advance the industry through involvement in policy discussions and academic studies. A cornerstone of these efforts is our Real Green Research Challenge. We are granting $1 million over four years, to support collaborative research with New York, Stanford, Cleveland State, Central Michigan and Maastrict universities as well as the EURO Institute. Projects underway are focused on advancing the industry’s understanding of the rates of green building adoption, motivations of occupiers seeking green space, designing optimal energy management plans for corporate campuses, the economic value of sustainability and how best to motivate building occupants to be more energy efficient. Results of these studies will be made public this year, and we believe that they will have real impact on future policy and practices in the field.

CBRE recognises that our position as the market leader comes with responsibilities. We take these responsibilities – to our clients, our people and our communities –  seriously and work hard every day to earn the trust of all our constituencies.

For the full report by Business Roundtable, please click here