News
YOU CAN SUSTAIN
August 15, 2012
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| Related's Charlotte Matthews, who's speaking at Bisnow's 3rd Annual NY Sustainability Summit on Tuesday, tells us the mixed-use MiMA in Midtown was the first development her LEED consultant had ever seen that emerged from the value-engineering process greener than when it went in. The 1.2M SF project at 42nd and Tenth (a residential tower with ground-floor retail, the Signature Center theater, and Yotel hotel) was on the path to LEED Silver when it got out of the ground just as the market was crashing. Related dove in to figure out how to get costs down without significantly changing the already-approved plan, and then the project delivered LEED Gold. (That's a Phelps-ian performance.) To hear how Charlotte and her team are applying what they learned to upcoming projects like Hudson Yards and to affordable housing, sign up for Bisnow's big event here! |
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| RREEF global sustainability director Patty Connolly, who's also speaking at our event next week, tells us her group spent its first year defining its aspirations and the second year figuring out the best ways to benchmark its assets (with programs like the Greenprint Carbon Index, the White House's Better Buildings Challenge, and the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark). The third year has gone to documenting best practices. For an asset manager like RREEF, that doesn't just mean energy efficiency but also financial allocations, risk-adjusted returns (raise your hand if you're jealous of Patty's job), and reporting that to clients in a meaningful way. Now, the company strives to influence the industry and help standardize metrics. That means making sure to have a presence on sustainability subcommittees for organizations like the Pension Real Estate Association, ULI, and INREV (Europe's take on ULI). |
