Colliers and Sustainability
Sustainable Real Estate
Background
According to the United Nations, the rate at which our living environment is being affected by human activity has increased dramatically in the past 40 years. To a large extent, our consumption is not sustainable. This does not only affect our planet, but human health as well. If no measures are taken to relieve the environment, future generations will be confronted with the unfortunate consequences.
In the 1960s, the Clean Air Act was implemented in the United Kingdom to drive back the extraction and burning of coal. This was one of the first steps taken to relieve the environment. Several other initiatives have been undertaken since, including the foundation of the WWF and Greenpeace, and the drafting of the Kyoto Protocol in 1971. Rising energy and raw material prices on the one hand and Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’ on the other have put sustainability on the social and economic agendas permanently.
Energy usage in urban areas
In the field of sustainability, reducing energy consumption is the talk of the day. Urban areas cause about one third of all carbon emissions, thereby surpassing traffic and industry. The Dutch government is increasingly aware of this development and attempts to reduce carbon emissions. Its goal is to decrease the emission of greenhouse gases by 30% below 1990 levels by 2020. Another target is to generate 20% of the total energy supply by using sustainable sources.
This will probably lead to the introduction of a compulsory energy label for urban areas. To make sure that a building becomes physically sustainable, it is necessary to take measures. Depending on a building’s need and use, these measures vary from simple adaptations to large-scale solutions. It is extremely likely that sustainability will also be put on the owner’s and user’s agendas for the time to come.
Colliers International’s involvement
Colliers International endorses the Dutch administration’s stance, as well as those organisations and individuals that contribute to the sustainability of real estate. We expect that the demand for green buildings will grow considerably in the coming decade. It will be increasingly difficult to let property that is not demonstrably sustainable. This will be the case for new buildings, but also for existing structures. A practical consequence of this development for Colliers will be that sustainability will become increasingly important for real estate valuation. As commercial real estate consultants, we will actively contribute to the promotion of sustainable buildings. As a first step in this direction, Colliers International has joined the Dutch Green Building Council. This enables us to keep up with all recent developments, which is most useful in our daily operations.
The Dutch Green Building Council (DGBC) is an independent organisation that is developing a sustainability label for buildings and areas in the Netherlands. The council was founded in response to the increasing demand for evaluation of sustainable development. The DGBC will issue certificates to clients whose property has been assessed according to the BREEAM standard, which was developed in the UK. BREEAM won the Best Program Award at the prestigious 2005 Tokyo World Sustainable Building Congress. BREEAM certificates have already been issued for over 100,000 buildings in the United Kingom.
Indicative Sustainability Scan (ISS) Colliers International
Colliers International has developed the so-called ISS method, which indicatively determines to what extent structures comply with sustainability standards. We predict that organisations will increasingly take sustainability into account when selecting objects and portfolios, while real estate owners will be interested in their property’s greenness. In both cases the ISS method will prove useful. Colliers International has already successfully carried out several sustainability scans. Please feel free to contact us if you wish to receive additional information about ISS.
