Bentall Kennedy Tops GRESB Sustainability Ranking

Bentall Kennedy Sustainability VP James Gray-Donald tells us his team was pleasantly surprised to nab top spots in the 2015 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) survey. For the second year in a row BK placed first among 153 companies in its peer group (private diversified). And MEPT Edgemoor, a fund advised by BK, was No. 1 among 22 funds globally in the diversified residential/office peer group. “Sustainability helps drive our properties’ financial performance by reducing risk and increasing net operating income,” says James. “We’ve seen strong results in those areas, and this is recognition we’re doing it well.”

Here’s World Exchange Plaza in Ottawa. Bentall Kennedy got the attention of GRESB by reducing energy consumption at this 1991 office building by 37% in less than five years, “down to levels under what many new office buildings would be built to,” notes James. Pictured below is another BK property that’s a green exemplar: 1900 16th St in Denver, which James says is one of few office buildings worldwide to boast triple LEED certification: LEED Platinum for existing buildings, LEED Gold for core and shell, and LEED for all commercial interior spaces. “We require in the leases that tenants go LEED CI.”

The GRESB survey had 707 participants representing 61,000 buildings worth US$2.3T. (Oxford Properties Group placed first in the diversified retail/office group.) BK's securing a top spot two years in a row was “unexpected” and “very significant,” says James. European and Australian institutional investors “rightly” believe their markets are ahead on sustainability in commercial real estate. So to come tops globally and past a number of Australian and European groups is "a powerful message for our client development executives to use in conversing with those institutional funds, to say we’re truly a global player.”