New lease on life
That’s where green lease clauses and green leases come in.
Green leases not only drive energy efficiency, they also foster stronger owner-occupier relationships. By
adopting green lease language, a foundation of aligned expectations, trust and familiarity is established,
opening up new opportunities for collaboration.
These green lease efforts can go beyond energy savings and extend to ambitious goals such as achieving netzero
carbon emissions or integrating the use of smart submetering for data collection and reporting requirements.
With green leases, landlords and tenants become partners in sustainability, working towards a shared vision,
aligning their interests and aspirations, while creating spaces that save energy and promote health, wellness,
social value, and environmental excellence.
The concept of green leases might be new to some, and that’s OK. By embracing green leases, we can transform
the landlord-tenant relationship into a powerful force for positive change.
Some of the areas where ‘green’ lease clauses are gaining popularity are:
- Onsite solar power permissions and renewable energy procurement options, including usage, metering and
management.
- Waste management and recycling provisions on site as more tenants target zero waste programs like TRUE Zero
Waste.
- Clauses outlining obligations for operating vs capital expenditure.
- Utility Data Sharing – permitting near real-time access for tenants to access the data they need for their
reporting and reduction requirements and/or stipulating frequency of data reporting between the owner and
occupier.
- One of the most important themes emerging from the green building movement is availability, transparency and
access to utility data and information. As the saying goes, ‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure.’
It is important to recognize that no one is perfect. Sharing lessons learned and imperfections can actually be
a meaningful step towards positive change. We are proud to be collaborative partners to our clients as we
navigate the constantly evolving ESG reporting requirements
Here at Avison Young? We are proud to be collaborative partners to our clients as we navigate the constantly evolving ESG reporting requirements, working together to achieve net zero by 2050-and hopefully have a little fun working together along the way.