How CBRE Develops Competitive Advantage: Q&A with Global Director of CR David Pogue
by Alyssa Danigelis
Originally published by Environmental Leader
“Commercial real estate is at the nexus of many issues — waste, water, energy, emissions, health,” says David Pogue, global director of corporate responsibility for CBRE. “We have a particular responsibility as a real estate services company to help our clients and the whole industry move forward.”
For CBRE, this means adopting a strategy that takes shared values into consideration. Recently we caught up with Pogue to learn how the company is integrating corporate responsibility into its business practices, and what kind of competitive advantages this can produce.
What’s an example from CBRE of shared advantage?
One example is Trammell Crow Company, wholly-owned independent subsidiary of CBRE focused on development and investment. They traditionally used LEED certification as a proxy for quality environmentally-sensitive appropriate development projects. Now they recognize the opportunities to go beyond the environmental issues piece. A healthy community has good schools and good infrastructure that provides jobs and opportunities.
We’re beginning to look at some of the developments they were involved in. One we studied was a former brickyard. It had become a neighborhood eyesore. On this site, Trammell Crow Company built a million-plus square-foot industrial project. They remediated the environmental issues and added more than a mile of walking paths with hundreds of trees. They provided 1,500 jobs and, by the development agreement, a fair portion were given to people in the local community. They provided assistance for job training. This creates millions of dollars of revenue into the community.
