2021 Green Lease Leaders Announced

Organized by IMT and the U.S. DOE Better Buildings Alliance, this program highlights organizations achieving leasing success around cost-savings, sustainability and landlord-tenant relationships.

Today, the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Alliance announces the 2021 Green Lease Leaders at the Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit, a virtual leadership symposium. Launched by IMT and the DOE Better Buildings Alliance in 2014, Green Lease Leaders sets an industry standard for what constitutes a green lease, while recognizing landlords and tenants who modernize their leases to spur collaborative action on energy efficiency, cost savings, improved air quality, and sustainability in buildings.green lease

This year’s Green Lease Leaders represent portfolios totaling more than two billion square feet (sq. ft.) and comprise a diverse range of buildings from large and small commercial offices to industrial buildings to data centers. The cumulative floor area of all Green Lease Leaders is now more than four billion sq. ft. of building space.

“Green Lease Leaders are helping to set a new standard in the real estate industry. These organizations are demonstrating that landlords and tenants can both benefit from lower energy costs while improving building comfort,” said Maria T. Vargas, senior program advisor at DOE and Director of the Better Buildings Initiative. “We appreciate their partnership and congratulate this year’s winners.”

“Green leases are a common sense, proven solution to create high-performing buildings and improve our communities,” said Lotte Schlegel, Executive Director at IMT. “These leases fix split incentives with agreements that save everyone money, improve indoor air quality, and lock in efficient, sustainable, and smart building operations. The leaders participating in this program are setting an important example of business practices that scale up building decarbonization while improving landlord-tenant relationships, business outcomes, and economic growth.”

IMT estimates that green leases can help reduce utility bills by up approximately 50 cents per square foot (22%) in U.S. office buildings alone. If all leased office buildings executed green leases, the market could reap over $3 billion in annual cost savings.

The 2021 Green Lease Leaders are:

Gold Recognition – Landlord

AEW Capital Management
Columbia Property Trust
CommonWealth Partners
Digital Realty
Diversified Healthcare Trust
Dream Office
Empire State Realty Trust
Federal Realty Investment Trust
First Capital REIT
GTIS Partners
Iron Mountain Data Centers
Jamestown
JBG Smith
Kimco Realty Corporation
Kite Realty Group
Link Logistics Real Estate
Prologis
Retail Opportunities Investment Corp.
RPT Realty
Shorenstein
Weingarten Realty

Gold Recognition – Tenant

TD Bank Group

Silver Recognition – Landlord

ASB Real Estate Investments
FIBRA Macquarie Mexico
Forge
Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation
Morgan Stanley
Parkway Properties Houston, LLC
Rexford Industrial Realty, L.P.
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust
Shopcore
Site Centers
Tishman Speyer

Silver Recognition – Tenant

Capgemini Real Estate
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

Team Transaction Recognition

Gold

Kilroy, Riot Games, and Allen Matkins
TD Bank Group, AIMCo, and Ivanhoe Cambridge
Cushman & Wakefield with Capgemini

Silver

Prosper Capital and the City of Cincinnati

To receive Green Lease Leaders recognition, organizations must meet two prerequisites and earn five or more credits for best practices such as utility data tracking and sharing, cost recovery for efficiency-related capital improvements, sustainability training, and energy efficiency fit-out requirements for tenant spaces, among others. Commercial, industrial, and retail landlords and tenants, as well as transaction teams (a combination of landlord, tenants or brokers for a single real estate deal) are eligible for recognition. Designees must reapply once every three years to maintain their Green Lease Leader status.

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