Justifying sustainable buildings – championing green operations

A fundamental contribution that a corporate real estate (CRE) manager can make to the industry and to the world is the sincere attempt to implement green operations within their buildings portfolio. Reducing an organization's environmental impact is a strategic issue that not only reaches across each constituent part of its own operations and activities, but extends to include those of its suppliers and those who use its goods and services. Facility and real estate managers can demonstrate their value by participating in formulating and implementing policies for reducing the organization's environmental impact, redefining their role as one that underpins mainstream organizational and business needs, and bringing value to their organization while positively impacting the global environment. This paper seeks to address these issues.

A review of current literature on the topic of sustainability and the background of the sustainability movement in the US was undertaken to develop key findings.

Organizations that adopt environmental responsibility and then take action are capable of building more secure and prosperous positions within the global economy. Five significant factors were found to endorse the business case for sustainable building design and operation. These include resource efficiency, energy efficiency, pollution prevention, harmonization with the environment, and integrated and systemic approaches, including environmental management systems.

Since, real estate is a fixed capital investment, any improvement to the asset should be considered, especially one as significant as sustainability efforts that also contribute to improved organizational impact.

Considering the reality of financial pressures, this paper attempts to provide background and information for managers to develop their own sustainability objectives to improve the value of CRE assets.