While the industry in most countries seeks ways to reconcile this performance gap, top-quality markets are also revealing a shift of their own. Multiple studies have looked to quantify the statistically significant price and/or rental premium for sustainable buildings, or the ‘green premium’, often measured by the presence of a green certification. Across global markets, JLL Research has found evidence of rental premiums ranging from 7.1% to 11.6% for green certified office assets. Although estimates across these studies vary, they reveal that sustainable attributes are generally always accretive to building rents and values, as assessed by LaSalle’s research, The Value of Green.

In the CRE industry, the pursuit of certifications has typically been landlord-led, but when it comes to company-wide carbon targets an increasing number of corporate occupiers are making ambitious – and public – commitments to net zero emissions. The new frontier of sustainability in real estate is now increasingly being pushed by tenants who are looking to ensure their operations in their selected sites are aligned with their own commitments.

“A key challenge is not necessarily the misalignment between many leading certification schemes and building performance, but rather the market’s misconception of what these credentials actually represent. Often, a building with a collection of certifications is assumed to be NZC when, in reality, they can be very separate things.”

Kirsty Draper
JLL’s Head of Sustainability, UK