The Atlanta market fared very well in a recent national study of green building certifications. In the second annual Green Building Adoption Index — an academic study conducted by researchers from Maastricht University and real estate services firm CBRE — Atlanta placed fourth overall among the top 30 U.S. markets and first in the percentage of all buildings certified. More than 29 percent of Atlanta’s buildings qualified, more than twice the national average.
Office buildings are at the nexus of many important environmental and social issues of our times. They are significant users of energy and water and produce meaningful amounts of waste and carbon emissions. They are at the center of transportation and workplace discussions. Consequently, many large companies make specific and public decisions to seek and occupy environmentally appropriate buildings. Additionally, real estate investors are seeking environmentally sound assets to purchase and hold in their portfolios.
The commercial real estate industry has responded, and the choices of environmentally appropriate buildings have grown significantly. The Green Building Adoption Index is a comprehensive review of the increase of EPA Energy Star and LEED-certified office properties in the top 30 U.S. markets over the past 10 years. The study looked exclusively at the “for lease” market, not corporate or government-owned buildings.
The growth in the overall national numbers is quite surprising. In 2005, only 1.5 percent of all buildings, representing 5.6 percent of all space, held Energy Star or LEED designations. By the end of 2014, 13 percent of buildings and 39 percent of all space was considered green. The growth in LEED certification was most pronounced, moving from only .01 percent in 2005 to 5.4 percent at the end of 2014. More than 20 percent of all space is now LEED-certified.
The Atlanta market benefits from most of the characteristics often cited by stakeholders pursuing green real estate. A community culture embraces and protects the natural environment. Atlanta is home to the headquarters of sixteen Fortune 500 companies. Many have well-defined and strongly stated environmental and sustainability commitments, which are expressed in their real estate choices. These corporate leaders also understand that younger-generation employees, highly sought and competitively recruited, are passionate about this issue and often consider a company’s record in this area when making career choices.
In Atlanta’s sub-markets, Midtown has one of the strongest green building adoption ratings, with 27 buildings — 51.9 percent of the total — green certified. Buckhead and the Central Perimeter follow with 45.3 percent and 32.5 percent, respectively, of certified office buildings.
Atlanta is also a city of big, institutionally owned and professionally managed buildings, which have been at the forefront of this movement. Finally, Atlanta has adopted building code and energy disclosure rules — most recently, the Commercial Buildings Energy Efficiency Ordinance in May — aimed at advancing green building standards and market transparency. Together, these market characteristics, corporate and investor actions and public policy make Atlanta one of the greenest cities in America.
However, the green-building survey also found a wide disparity among markets and particularly among building sizes. Larger buildings are much more likely to pursue certification than smaller ones, even the EPA Energy Star label, which can often be gained with limited costs. Fewer than 5 percent of buildings smaller than 100,000 square feet have either green certification, and there are far more of these buildings in the Atlanta market. Greater focus must now be placed on helping these smaller buildings, which often lack financial resources, knowledge and staff expertise to pursue this vital outcome.
David Pogue is global director of corporate responsibility for CBRE.
About the Author
