CHAPTER FIVE
SUSTAINABILITY
Don’t look now, but the future has arrived; Commercial real estate takes the LEED
When explaining the theme of this book to sources, I often used the word megatrends, which was a term made popular by John Naisbitt in his book by the same name. Upon invoking the word, most people immediately understood the intent of my book-writing attempt, but one very sharp real estate investor suggested to me the word had a very precise meaning: A megatrend was a future trend as opposed to one that we might be presently living through.
Frankly, I wasn’t sure that was what Naisbitt had in mind when he wrote his transformative tome back in 1982. But if my source was accurate in his supposition, then I was already behind the scope of my book with this chapter on real estate and sustainability, because Green initiatives in regard to new commercial real estate development had in just a few years become the norm.
“I cannot imagine anyone starting a Class A building today in any major urban area that would not be LEED- (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified,” exclaimed Dan Rashin, senior vice president of Hines Interests, an international real estate firm based in Houston. “I cannot remember the last announcement that I saw on a major building that did not include LEED.”
Even though Rashin was essentially correct, Green programs in real estate are, nevertheless, ...
Get After the Fall: Opportunities and Strategies for Real Estate Investing in the Coming Decade now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
