April 14th, 2008 · No Comments

By John DeFore

You don’t have to take the tree huggers’ word for it — now a leading source of information on commercial real estate has demonstrated that greener building practices not only make sense, but earn dollars as well: The CoStar Group, an info-broker that tracks data on more than 2.3 million properties, has released a report announcing that “sustainable ‘green’ buildings outperform their non-green peer assets in key areas such as occupancy, sale price and rental rates, sometimes by wide margins.”

It’s no surprise that buildings boasting a LEED certification do better than others in terms of energy use — for doubters, a March study by the New Buildings Institute found they fared 25-30% better than the average new building, and that higher levels of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification resulted in greater savings — but now comes CoStar to look at the fiscal bottom line.

The analysts find that seals of green approval are highly desirable to new tenants: “LEED buildings command rent premiums of $11.33 per square foot over their non-LEED peers and have 4.1 percent higher occupancy. Rental rates in Energy Star buildings represent a $2.40 per square foot premium over comparable non-Energy Star buildings and have 3.6 percent higher occupancy.” In terms of real-estate sales, the margin is even higher.

CoStar examined stats for more than 1,300 LEED or Energy Star buildings, pitting them against regular commercial properties of comparable location, age, and size. A big part of the price premium, they say, results from scarcity — less than 1% of the buildings they track are designated green — and rental/sales prices will likely normalize as eco-conscious businesses find it easier to locate green properties. Regardless, CoStar CEO Andrew Florance says his report is a “strong economic case for developing green buildings.

Not to mention it being the ecologically responsible thing to do.

(The study was initiated by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council, which awards LEED points to buildings, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which designates Energy Star properties.)

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