CBRE Joins Climate Group as First CRE Member

While CBRE is already deeply involved in practical actions that tenants and building owners can take in the real day-to-day environment of building occupancy and operations, "What the Climate Group brings is the influence of their members who are world leaders and Fortune 500 companies that are working with government and business leaders to establish policies to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy," Wilson says. Those Fortune 500 companies include many tenants and building owners who are clients of CBRE, which approaches the sustainability challenge from "a number of perspectives," according to Wilson.

"Given the variety of services that we offer, we look at this from many perspectives: from the tenant's perspective, from the building owner's perspective, from the perspective of creating awareness on both the owner side and the occupier side," she says. Wilson adds that the Climate Group has an international reach, which aligns with CBRE's plans for emphasizing the importance of reducing carbon emissions in its international operations.

She explains that CBRE—which has a stated goal of becoming carbon-neutral by the year 2010—has thus far been focusing most of its efforts on the Americas because the Americas account for the largest portion of the firm's global carbon footprint, 65%. "But we are now beginning to look at the other countries, and our plan for 2009 emphasizes getting the message out globally to our other markets," Wilson says.

Since governmental policies, codes and zoning in other regions can differ substantially from those in the Americas, Wilson says, membership in an organization like the Climate Group that is already working in regions outside of the Americas will offer substantial benefits to CBRE. In addition, she says, "The Climate Group's public-private approach brings in very high-level public and governmental speakers," such as former British prime minister Tony Blair and other national leaders. "When you can bring in someone like that to speak on behalf of this topic, you attract a completely different crowd that really involves the top leadership" in both the public and private sectors, Wilson explains.

Chris Walker, North American director of the Climate Group, says in a statement regarding CBRE's membership that, "As the world's largest commercial real estate services firm, CBRE is uniquely positioned to help slow climate change by working with its clients to increase energy efficiency in the commercial properties it manages."In May 2007, CBRE announced a commitment to become carbon neutral in its own operations by 2010—making it the first commercial real estate services company to announce such a goal. In addition, CBRE is assisting its clients with energy efficiency programs at much of the 1.9 billion sf of building space it manages around the world. The company cites research showing that buildings are the second highest consumer of power in the world, behind industry.

To help it achieve its goal of carbon neutrality, CBRE has established an international task force to aggregate and share best practices on a global basis, develop educational programs for clients and employees and develop internal policies and business practices. In the US, the company has instituted a wide range of programs for the commercial buildings it manages. These include the mandated adoption of EPA's Energy Star program, and the adoption and use of the Building Owners and Managers Association's (BOMA) Building Energy Efficiency Program (BEEP), an extensive education program that teaches commercial real estate professionals how to reduce energy consumption.

Additionally, more than 150 buildings managed by CBRE's Asset Services Group are undergoing current evaluation for inclusion in a pilot portfolio LEED EB program in conjunction with the US Green Building Council. A recent survey by CBRE found that more than two thirds of the buildings it queried are taking proactive steps toward enhancing energy efficiency, reducing water usage and introducing paper recycling programs. More than 100 of the company's professionals have received LEED AP accreditation.

Internationally, CBRE has instituted a number of programs directed toward sustainability in its Europe Middle East Africa and Asia-Pacific regions. Wilson points out that—in addition to reducing its own carbon footprint and assisting tenants and building owners with programs to reduce theirs—the company by virtue of its size has a lot of influence with vendors and suppliers to push them in the direction of sustainability.