The projects include such high profile buildings as One Beacon in Boston, 2000 Avenue of the Stars in Los Angeles, Accenture Tower in Minneapolis and Lincoln Plaza in Dallas. In addition to the 70 buildings and 29 million square feet, which are owned by 22 different investors and corporations, CBRE is in the process of obtaining the EB certification for an additional 59 office projects, representing 100 buildings and 40 million square feet. When all of those are complete, CBRE will have obtained EB certifications for a total of 69 million square feet of the approximately 275 million square feet of US office space under its asset services business.

"It's clear that by the end of the year, we will have exceeded our goal of 100 buildings," for LEED-EB certification, Pogue says, although he allows that it wasn't so clear that the goal would be attainable by the end-of-2010 deadline when CBRE began the program. "At that time, there were only 59 such buildings in the world," he points out.

Since then, however, the USGBC's program for certifying existing buildings has gained momentum, as has CBRE's effort to obtain the certifications. CBRE has hit its stride in the certification program in the past 15 to 18 months to reach the 70-building mark, Pogue says, with an in-house LEED-EB certification team that works in partnership with CBRE's on-site staffs at the buildings.

Certification for existing buildings generally takes about nine months and involves three or four phases, including a 90-day performance period in which CBRE monitors the building's operations for compliance with the EB standards. The evaluation focuses on a variety of facets of building operations, including energy use, air quality, cleaning, recycling, water use and pest control.

Energy use is a big part of the EB evaluation, Pogue points out, with building Energy Star ratings playing a key role. Current EB certification requirements place more emphasis on energy than earlier standards, he says, which illustrates that the standards are continually evolving and being refined. "It's a very open, collaborative process," among all parties concerned, Pogue says of the evolution of standards.

The LEED certification movement has maintained and even gained momentum despite the recession, according to Pogue. He notes that building owners pursue certification for a variety of reasons—some because they believe it's the right thing to do, some to save money and others to differentiate their buildings from the competition. A growing body of academic studies show that LEED-certified buildings achieve higher rents and occupancies, Pogue points out. In addition, a growing number of tenants are mandating that office space they rent must be in sustainable buildings.

CBRE manages more than 9% of all LEED-EB sites globally, and nearly 13% of the total square footage of LEED-EB certified properties. As such, it is the largest third-party manager of commercial buildings in the program.