Make the Case and Motivate

The following excerpt is from IREM’s publication, A Practical Guide to Green Real Estate Management (IREM © 2009):

You can’t achieve these ambitious goals entirely on your own—you’ll need a team, or at least some support in your corner. Identify or create “champions” among your colleagues, your tenants, and throughout your organization to participate in your sustainability efforts. They should have the business knowledge, leadership skills, and above all, passion to implement green strategies and initiatives. 

Approach owners for the go-ahead to undertake a “greening” effort. Deliver the message about bottom line savings, enhanced value, tenant and market demands, pending regulations, and other drivers pushing green real estate management to the forefront of the industry. Be prepared with answers to common questions and doubts—many of which you may have had before learning more about green real estate management. For example, owners are likely to raise concerns about the costs and time associated with “greening” their properties. Refer to the table below to dispel some common misperceptions about sustainability in today’s real estate market. 

Take advantage of economies of scale and establish a strategic green real estate management program for the full portfolio of buildings you manage. To learn more, refer to these comprehensive guides to strategic portfolio-wide energy management. Though these guidelines focus on energy, their lessons can be applied broadly across all sustainability efforts. 

• ENERGY STAR Guidelines for Energy Management: A seven-step process, from commitment to implementation to recognizing achievements. Visit www.energystar.gov/guidelines
• BetterBricks’ High Performance Portfolio Framework: Strategic planning principles for setting up and maintaining an energy management program in office buildings. The associated fact sheets delve into greater detail about specific topics such as assessing organization-wide business practices as they relate to energy efficiency. Visit http://betterbricks.com/DetailPage.aspx?Id=298
• A Practical Guide to Energy Management: This IREM Key Report focuses on portfolio-wide energy management practices that enhance the bottom line. Visit www.irembooks.org

The Responsible Property Investing (RPI) initiative is another source for comprehensive environmental management guidance. A variation on corporate social responsibility, RPI is a holistic approach to real estate management, ownership and development that considers the environmental and social implications of these activities. Visit www.responsibleproperty.net to learn more.