In 2012, green buildings sprouted up across Illinois like wild flowers (let’s say violets, since we’re talking about the Land of Lincoln.)
In fact, last year the state certified 156 LEED projects, representing 25 million square feet of real estate. In total, the state now has more than 700 LEED certified projects, representing more than 140 million square feet of real estate. That’s the equivalent of 30 Willis Towers.
Add six companies…five million square feet of collective real estate…and one challenge. Stir.
What do you get?
A recipe for something remarkable – not just better buildings, but best buildings. In other words, California’s Best Buildings Challenge.
Yesterday, six major leading companies – Adobe, Genentech, Google, Prudential Real Estate Investors, SAP and Zynga – stepped up to the Challenge, a commitment to achieve not just a 20 percent reduction in energy but also in water and waste.
One of the nation’s largest public real estate organizations is launching a new building portfolio management system, designed to benchmark performance in sustainable building operations across its portfolio – roughly 375 million square feet.
Game on.
“Our new management information system is like TurboTax for LEED certification”, said David Gray, Sustainability Manager at GSA.
The U.S. landscape is covered by more than 60 billion square feet of existing buildings, many of them hogging inordinate amounts of resources and energy due to outdated infrastructure. The potential to green this building stock is vast, and more import…