At CBRE's Dallas corporate offices, located on two floors at 2100 McKinney Avenue, the firm's Cafe Rise annually composts 240,000 lbs. of food waste, with an 80 percent diversion rate. The cafe, which is approximately 2,500 sq. ft., serves an estimated 450 meals per week or over 23,000 meals per year.

Forest City’s headquarters is located in a mixed-use development in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio, from which the firm operates buildings housing offices, retail spaces, hotels and restaurants as tenants, so it is an ideal place to collect organic waste from small office kitchens to full-service restaurants. In 2010, the firm successfully brought together a coalition of downtown businesses and organizations interested in composting to establish a collection route in an area of the city previously not served by commercial compost facilities. Since then, more than a dozen Tower City tenants have been collecting organic material, which totaled 240 cubic yards in 2012. Nationally, Forest City has implemented cardboard recycling programs at all of the locations in its retail portfolio, recycling more than 426 tons of cardboard and saving the equivalent landfill space since 2010. Three of its retail operations have introduced comingled recycling streams, resulting in more than 1,000 tons of waste diverted from landfills over 2010-2012. Northfield Stapleton and Orchard Town Center retail centers near Denver, Colo., have been the firm’s greatest recycling success stories to date. An average of 28 percent of all waste from these locations was diverted from landfills in 2010-2012. At Northfield Stapleton, recycling efforts have been supported and promoted by associates and tenants, and Denver will continue setting the pace for the retail centers nationally. Waste increases costs and reduces funds from operations and contributes to stress on land and natural resources, so reducing waste during the construction phase and ongoing operations is a priority for Forest City. During construction, the firm works to minimize waste, and requires its contractors to use best practices for minimizing construction and demolition waste. With renovation projects, Forest City re-uses as much as possible of the existing structure to minimize waste and the need for new materials. For operating properties, the firm works with local vendors and municipal operators to provide recycling and, in some cases, composting facilities. The firm tracks waste and recycling for retail projects only. Forest City headquarters also runs a WorkGreen program to encourage recycling at headquarters, including a program for sharing and recycling office products, maintaining an inventory room where associates can redirect unused office materials, furniture, supplies and paper products for redistribution to other departments in need. This program not only provides operational savings, but helps the environment through thrifty resource management.

JLL has implemented alternative workplace strategy in 62 percent of its offices, up from 46 percent in 2011. The firm's offices worldwide will join thousands of other buildings to observe Earth Hour, turning off non-emergency lighting for an hour, effectively darkening city skylines in observance of energy conservation efforts around the world, including the AON Center, JLL's headquarters in Chicago (shown here). JLL has established recycling programs in 19 of its offices in 18 U.S. cities. The offices total over 850K sq. ft. The recycled materials include paper, plastic, cardboard, batteries, toner, cans, glass and electronics. A Cleaner Tomorrow (ACT) is JLL's internal environmental program, which seeks to reduce the firm's impact primarily through employee engagement and communication efforts. JLL also is employing an increasing number of energy and greenhouse gas emissions initiatives, many of which originate from the ACT program. Globally, 70 percent of JLL's offices have at least one initiative and the firm has documented 207 initiatives in 2012, up from 170 in 2011. These types of efforts have been implemented each year since 2008; many have grown to be a part of the firm's standard operating procedures and are not formally reported. “Sustainability and environment-focused programs present JLL with opportunities to differentiate ourselves," says Chuck Kelly, JLL's senior vice president of operations. "By implementing strategies and programs in our own offices across the world, we bring to life the innovative practices that we implement in our clients’ properties.”

The Rockefeller Group is dedicated to sustainability within its portfolio on every forefront, which includes its efforts in recycling. Throughout its buildings, Rockefeller runs a comprehensive recycling program that includes paper, cardboard, plastics, metals and glass, in addition to lamps, batteries and other electronic and furniture waste. Waste stream audits are performed regularly to ensure this program is optimized by the company and its tenants. Highlights include 50 Beale Street in San Francisco, where composted goods account for 30 percent of the building’s total waste. Overall, about 75 percent of the waste that leaves the firm’s buildings is either recycled or composted. In recognition of Earth Day 2014, Rockefeller’s operations team is offering its tenants and all of their employees a one-day free pickup of electronic waste. The Rockefeller Group is working with e-Green Recycling Management LLC, a recycling specialist dedicated to preventing e-waste from entering landfills as well as recycling all materials in the correct way, complying with R2, ISO 14001, RIOS and NAID certifications, and is inviting its employees and all of its tenants in Manhattan to bring to work old batteries and any household electronic equipment that need to be recycled. This Earth Day event also applies to electronic waste generated at work. The Rockefeller Group owns and manages approximately 6 million sq. ft. of class-A office space in Manhattan.

Simon Property Group makes recycling available at 100 percent of its properties. At Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, Calif., which is currently being redeveloped and is scheduled to reopen in 2015, the green practices being include the re-use, salvage and recycling of roughly 95 percent of the demolished building materials from the north section of the mall, which is currently being demolished progressively and is slated for completion of demolition by late June. But well before the first wall came down, Del Amo Fashion Center carefully planned for environmentally-sensitive redevelopment that ensured building materials would be reused, salvaged or recycled. That includes the donation of interior light fixtures and finishes, as well as about 80 tables and 320 chairs from the old food court, to Gymnastics Olympica USA, a nonprofit gymnastic training center that has been a leader in physical fitness for children and adults for more than 28 years. Other efforts included the salvage of approximately 2,500 sheets of roof plywood and 2,000 linear feet of wood beams for re-use. Recycling efforts include an estimated 240,00 sq. ft. of rolled roofing composite, 600 tons of drywall, 200 tons of interior wood wall, 1,000 tons of steel, 10 tons of aluminum, 10 tons of copper, 5 tons of stainless steel, 30,000 tons of concrete, 25,000 tons of asphalt, 200 tons of landscaping and 250 tons of brick.

In 2007, SL Green expanded its recycling program to address construction waste by diverting carpet and ceiling tiles from landfills. Building on the success of its office recycling program, which diverts more than 77 percent of all office waste, the incorporation of this initiative increased construction recycling rates by 30 percent. To date, over 3.5 million sq. ft., totaling more than 1,200 tons of carpet and ceiling tile, has been diverted from landfills, and turned into new second-generation products. With no impact to its cost or schedule, SL Green has proven that recycling of carpet and ceiling tile can be successfully integrated within all construction projects, whether the project totals 500 sq. ft., 50,000 sq. ft., or, as 164,000 sq. ft. as in the firm’s recent project at 100 Church Street in downtown Manhattan.

Bernards' Los Angeles headquarters received Silver LEED Rating for its96 percent re-use of a 56,621-sq.-ft. tilt-up building, whose green features include recycled countertops. Bernards currently has 40 employees LEED certified. A trash collection company filters through 95 percent of the firm's trash for recyclable materials. Biodegradable cutlery and recycled supplies are purchased for employee coffee stations and break room areas.