HOUSTON: Retail Can Go Green
Sustainability in retail properties can be particularly tricky, but Weingarten director of sustainability Jeff Warwick (here with IREM Houston's Lindsay Bangle) says his firm has made great progress. Jeff says property managers of open-air shopping centers control 15% to 25% of total energy consumed, giving them a limited impact on conservation. But Weingarten's focused on low-hanging fruit like parking lot lights and irrigation controls. (Has anyone considered moving toward parking lot torches? A little Medieval, but very green.) His biggest suggestion: Measure, measure, measure. He's been using IREM's new sustainability platform (which includes database software, a challenge competition, and a new property-level cert) to manage his data and help drive improvements across his portfolio.
