RILA, ICSC in partnership to improve energy efficiency in leased spaces
Three groups have joined together to empower commercial building landlords and tenants to improve energy efficiency in leased space and reap up to $5 billion in annual energy savings.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), and the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) are launching a coordinated national effort, called the Landlord-Tenant Energy Partnership, to reduce energy use across billions of square feet of leased space.
The alliance, announced at RILA’s annual Retail Sustainability & Environmental Compliance conference, will build upon standards for energy-aligned leasing (or “green leasing”) practices established by IMT and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Green Lease Leaders program. These practices — improve the tenant site selection process; increase transparency of tenant utility consumption in office and retail buildings; promote adoption of energy-efficient build-out methods; and increase landlord-tenant interaction to enable energy-saving efforts throughout the course of a tenant’s leases — position tenants and landlords to make more-informed business decisions regarding their operations and leased space.
The new partnership will also coordinate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program and U.S. Department of Energy's upcoming tenant-focused initiative.
“Energy management within leased stores continues to be a challenge for many retailers,” said Erin Hiatt, senior manager, sustainability and compliance at RILA. “This partnership is an opportunity to engage all relevant parties to overcome these obstacles as an industry and establish leading practices moving forward.”
Ultimately, Hiatt said, RILA’s goal for this partnership is to help both tenants and landlords work together to unlock energy-saving and cost-saving opportunities.
To kick off its efforts, the partnership has established an advisory group of representatives from some of the largest companies with national real estate portfolios, including CBRE, Kimco Realty Corp., and Nike. (The current list of advisors can be found at Landlordtenantenergypartnership.org.)
“As the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, CBRE sees landlord-tenant collaboration on energy efficiency as a crucial way to improve whole-building energy performance across our portfolio and to reach our corporate sustainability and carbon reduction goals,” said Lisa Colicchio, director of corporate responsibility for CBRE. "I look forward to working with IMT, RILA, and ICSC to bolster this important dynamic in the real estate sector and capture associated returns on our investments.”
Participants will receive access to expert one-on-one guidance on implementing energy efficiency in leased spaces, best-in-class resources such as model lease language and build-out specifications, insights into leading landlord-tenant issues such as data sharing efforts, and access to innovative pilot projects and business models.