Area Development

Building and maintaining "green" facilities may require extra time and effort, but companies are prepared to overcome these challenges and employ sustainable practices. This is according to a recent international survey conducted by CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle, a leading real estate service provider.

More than 400 industry professionals at CoreNet Global summits in London, Melbourne, Denver, and Singapore took the survey entitled "Sustainability Perceptions and Trends in the Corporate Real Estate Industry." And, according to the results, a large majority of the companies worldwide (79 percent) view sustainability as critical to their businesses and are willing to pay a premium to help their companies become more sustainable.

"These findings reinforce what we hear from clients every day; more and more companies are recognizing the business case for sustainability, and their corporate real estate departments are charged with making it happen to a large extent," said Ben Breslau, director of Occupier Research at Jones Lang LaSalle.

In actuality, the cost of sustainability has decreased. Studies indicate that designing energy-efficient buildings, or building them to LEED® certification, will cost only about 1 to 5 percent more than conventional construction. Nearly three quarters of the respondents thought the cost would be higher, and 41 percent also view the opportunity to apply techniques to make buildings more environmentally friendly as "limited or minimal."