November 18, 2009—Seventy-four percent of corporate real estate executives now say they would be willing to pay a premium to retrofit the office space they own to achieve sustainability goals, a survey has found.
That figure compares to the 53 percent last year who said they would make such an investment, according to results of the 2009 CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle sustainability survey.
The survey findings showed that despite persistent tough times, corporate real estate executives continue to embrace and act upon sustainability values, and some do so more strongly than ever.
Sixty-seven percent of the respondents noted that securing funds to carry out sustainability strategies is a “difficult” or “extremely difficult” challenge. However, the research also found that:
- 70 percent (up from 69 percent in 2008 and 47 percent in 2007) consider sustainability a critical business issue,
- 89 percent consider sustainability whenever making decisions about selecting office locations,
- 41 percent always consider green building certification when administering their corporate real estate portfolios,
- 46 percent consider energy labels, and
- 60 percent said they are adopting workplace strategies to meet sustainability goals while also reducing occupancy costs, compared to 54 percent last year.
With growing knowledge about green real estate and the increasing demand for it, fewer corporate real estate execs said they would be willing to pay more for environmentally friendly space:
- 37 percent said they would consider paying a premium of 1 percent to 10 percent,
- 21 percent said they would be willing to pay a rent premium if it were offset by lower operating costs,
- 8 percent said they expected to pay less, and
- 34 percent said they expected to pay the same.
In contrast, 42 percent said they were willing to pay a premium of 1 percent to 5 percent to lease green workspace in 2008, and 77 percent of those surveyed said they’d consider paying a premium in 2007.
A summary of this year’s survey findings is available online.
