November 2007 VOL. 2

Did you know?

A large majority of companies around the world view sustainability as critical to their business and are willing to pay a premium to help their companies become more sustainable, according to a watershed survey called "Sustainability Perceptions and Trends in the Corporate Real Estate Industry."

The survey, conducted by CoreNet Global, an international association of workplace and corporate real estate executives, and Jones Lang LaSalle, queried more than 2,300 real estate professionals. It found that 79 percent of respondents see sustainability as a near-term business issue that's important today, or one that will be important in the next one to two years.

While sustainable building is becoming more critical the world over, its intensity varies from continent to continent. In Europe, for example, 61 percent of respondents feel sustainability is a critical business now; 53 percent feel that way in Australia, while only 44 percent of respondents who attended the Denver Global Summit feel that sustainability is critical now.

According to the survey, 77 percent of companies are willing to pay for sustainable real estate solutions. Roughly 20 percent expect to pay the same amount.

But there's also a gap between what sustainable real estate solutions actually cost and the perception of what they will cost. Many companies still don't realize that the cost of sustainability has come down. A large proportion of respondents think sustainable designs are more expensive than they really are. For example, 52 percent say premiums will be 5 percent or more to build in a sustainable manner, while 22 percent of them believe green buildings will cost 10 percent more than conventional building.