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Benchmarking the Built Environment's Performance Assessment Tools Highlight Needed Actions and Verify Results
April, 2008
By Wayne Proulx
In every developed country, and now beginning in developing countries (due to international pressures), the real estate sector is faced with increasing pressure to integrate corporate social responsibility into its core business. The significant challenge for the industry is how to effectively identify, measure, manage and improve those aspects of real estate and corporate operations that can make it more socially responsible.
Encompassing single family homes, multi-family housing developments, high-rise apartments, industrial properties (heavy manufacturing and light industry), retail plazas/malls, government properties, institutional real estate (universities, research facilities and hospitals), the direct and indirect effect real estate has on local, national and global economies, environment and society is tremendous. According to New Scientist magazine (3 September, 2005), all forms of real estate consume 24% of all global energy or approximately 2.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent and contribute 36% of all emissions or approximately 14.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Recognizing this significant impact, governments, associations and NGOs all over the world have developed assessment tools and protocols that enable all levels of government, real estate developers, owners and managers to evaluate the energy, emissions and environmental impact of developing and managing real estate.
Each day, millions of people spend their day in this built environment consuming energy in the production of goods and services to be delivered around the world. The consumption of energy and natural resources necessary to power this GDP affects every single one of us on this planet.
For example, China's reliance on an ever-increasing number of coal-generated electricity plants has caused excessive pollution levels in more than 400 of its 660 cities. Coal-burning emissions arriving via the jet stream also contribute to mercury levels in Lake Ontario and other bodies of water in North America.
The application of assessment tools allows owners to design, plan and develop new properties and manage existing properties in an efficient and socially responsible manner. Some tools also allow for the most important continuum between this development and management to ensure a continuous and beneficial property life cycle.
The basis and technical support for these tools vary, but there is no argument over their purpose or usefulness; India has TGBRS, Japan has CASBEE, Australia has NABERS, USA has LEED and Green Globes, in England there is BREEAM, and in Canada there is BOMA Canada's Go Green Plus and Green Globes. Each one of these tools has varying degrees of administrative difficulty, cost and purpose, but their intent is the same: to improve the energy and environmental performance of real estate and reduce its negative effect on society.
Most of these tools measure the property's eco-footprint, which is determined by calculating specific key performance indicators, such as:
- Energies consumed;
- Waste created or avoided;
- Emission as tonnes of CO2 equivalent (created through the consumption of direct and indirect energies such as natural gas, fuel oil, steam, electricity and the tonnes of waste to landfill);
- Management of hazardous materials;
- Quality of indoor air;
- Health and safety of occupants and visitors;
- Procurement of eco-friendly supplies and services;
- Existence of applicable policies, procedures and training; and
- Availability of improvement funds.
This provides guidance and improvement recommendations or requirements as the process is completed. Some tools are on-line, self assessments while others, more complex, require third party consultants to identify and verify conditions and efficiencies.
In Canada, BOMA Canada's Go Green Plus program employs the Green Globes Existing Building Assessment Tool as the basis of its commercial real estate sustainable achievement recognition program. Owners must complete the on-line assessment questionnaire and undergo a rigorous verification and certification process before the achievement is recognized.
As an integral part of the BOMA Toronto/Ontario Power Authority's Conservation and Demand Management (CDM) Program and the Canadian Government's KPI Process, Go Green Plus has been recognized as a national measurement, benchmarking, planning and training tool and has been endorsed by most major owners in Canada.
With governments, tenants and society in general recognizing the direct economic, environmental and social effect real estate has globally, they are demanding owners take preemptive steps to build greener buildings and manage them in a more environmentally responsible way. Assessment tools have provided owners with the ability to identify methods with which to meet these demands while balancing their ownership objectives. An effective, fully adopted assessment and improvement program will also assist industry advocates in responding to government legislation.
Efficiency enhancement determinations made during the assessment process have spawned an entire industry to provide owners with more eco-responsible supplies, services and energy efficient equipment. These benefits have flowed down the supply chain, to provide incremental economic benefits globally. This phenomenon is expected to be enhanced as more and more owners and legislators recognize the benefits of improving all aspects of all forms of real estate.
Public and private sectors around the world are now trying to define Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expectations and demands of the public and their investors. Energy and environmental assessment tools can provide them with the ability to determine and enhance the energy efficiency, environmental responsibility and social accountability within real estate.
Wayne Proulx is Program Director of BOMA Toronto's CDM program and is a past recipient of the BOMA Toronto President's Award. He can be reached at rwproulx@bomatoronto.org. |