MIAMI—Last week I reported on Atlanta's high ranking on the 2015 Green Building Adoption Index, a joint project of CBRE and Maastricht University. Miami doesn't exactly stack up to Atlanta but it's competing well on the national scene. With 41.6% of its office space considered “green,” Miami ranked ninth of 30 markets on the index.
Before we dive deeper, let's define what CBRE means by green. For this report's purpose, green office space is property that holds either an EPA ENERGY STAR label, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) full-building LEED certification or both.
Using square feet as a measure, 41.6% of Miami's office market is “green." That's well above the national average of 38.7%. What's more, Miami ranked particularly well in terms of number of buildings considered green at over 17%. By square feet, 21.84% of Miami's office market has a LEED certification, and over a third of the office market is ENERGY STAR rated.
“Our 2015 study confirmed that green building adoption has been primarily a big building, first-tier city phenomenon,” says David Progue, CBRE's global director of corporate responsibility. “It would appear that many smaller buildings in the majority of large markets still have an opportunity to be 'best in class' among their peer set by achieving these certifications.”
This is the second year in a row that Miami ranked ninth on the list. Minneapolis led the Green Building Adoption Index's city ranking for the second consecutive year with 70.4% of all office space currently qualified as green. That's down from 77% in 2014.
Ranking second once again, San Francisco significantly closed the gap with Minneapolis, posting a 70% green market. That's up from 67.2% in 2014. Chicago, at 63.4%, was third, while Atlanta (57.8% ) and Houston (52.9%) swapped positions at fourth and fifth. The top 10 cities on the 2014 list all retained a place on the 2015 list.
According to the study, owners of small buildings have an opportunity to differentiate themselves by implementing energy-efficient practices. That's due to a significant gap between large and small office buildings in achieving sustainability certification.
For example, CBRE reports, 62.1% of office buildings in the US greater than 500,000 square feet are considered green. In contrast, only 4.5% of all US office buildings less than 100,000 square feet qualified as green.
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