Let’s Clear the Air (Literally)

There’s been a lot written about green building – and with good reason. Sustainably built office buildings are not only a good business decision for developers – making properties more valuable and improving NOI due to reduced maintenance and energy costs – but they also have an enormous impact on the environment and climate change. Just as important, however, are the benefits realized by corporate tenants located within green buildings, as well as their employees.

Wellness is one of those benefits. In fact, wellness is deemed to be so important to the commercial real estate industry that in 2017, the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), which evaluates real assets, including real estate portfolios on their sustainability policies and implementation and provides data to capital markets, launched a health and well-being module. The fact that GRESB – whose investor members represent over $18 trillion in institutional capital – now supports reporting for health and well-being to help investors manage risk is telling. Attracting capital for “green” projects is no longer viewed as strictly a selling point in satisfying an investor’s corporate social responsibility checklist, but it’s also a fiscally smart move.