A world-first green leasing standard will help landlords and tenants benchmark their agreements against others and save on power and water bills thanks to a City of Sydney-led partnership.
The award-winning Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), a collaboration of major property owners, building managers and the City of Sydney, this week released the new commercial green leasing standard to deliver better sustainability outcomes for tenants and landlords.
The leasing standard has been developed in response to a growing appetite from businesses to connect with like-minded landlords on operating their workplaces sustainably.
City of Sydney CEO, Monica Barone, said the partnership has been a major success story and demonstrates the huge demand for sustainability initiatives in the commercial office sector.
"BBP members have reduced their emissions by 45 per cent since 2006, saving $30 million per year. The development of the BBP leasing standard will help members further reduce their emissions and make even greater savings over the coming years," Ms Barone said.
"We are increasingly seeing businesses of all different sizes with a desire to operate out of buildings that complement their green focus."
The BBP leasing standard identifies 20 categories that help classify a lease as ‘green’. It also provides an online tool that enables leases to be assessed, generating a lease scorecard and rating badge.
The scorecard and badge make it easy to identify the strength of sustainability of the proposed lease and compare it against other leases.
Ms Barone said the demand for green leasing was at an all-time high, with market uptake of the leases growing at 10 times the rate we saw in the 2008–09 financial year.
"While owners and tenants may not be able to build all 20 categories into the lease, they have the option to work together and agree on a set of clauses achievable by both parties over the life of the lease," Ms Barone said.
The Better Buildings Partnership has played an important role in helping the City achieve its Sustainable Sydney 2030 target of reducing emissions by 70 per cent compared to 2006 levels.
"We cannot achieve our ambitious Sustainable Sydney 2030 targets without support from major corporations and landowners in the city centre through initiatives such as the Better Buildings Partnership," Ms Barone said.
DEXUS Property Group, one of the BBP’s founding members, launched its Simple and Easy Lease in 2016, which incorporates green lease provisions.
"DEXUS is committed to optimising the environmental performance of its buildings and the BBP leasing standard helps us communicate this to our customers. We are pleased that our new lease is scored as gold under the BBP leasing standard, which is the highest level available," said DEXUS Head of Group Sustainability and incoming BBP Chair, Mr Paul Wall.
The BBP leasing standard has been applauded by the Property Council of Australia Chief Executive Ken Morrison.
"This is a good initiative by the City of Sydney’s Better Buildings Partnership that can be rolled out around Australia. It’s an example of business and government working together to achieve strong outcomes in terms of energy usage, waste, standards and compliance," Mr Morrison said.
"It should help deliver better environmental outcomes and reduce outgoings for both landlords and tenants.
"It recognises that the leasing of most commercial properties is not a case of ‘set and forget’, but it is an active partnership between landlords and tenants. These clauses can fit easily into standard lease agreements and we’ve seen a good take up in leases over the past two years.
"International investors are increasingly asking for greater levels of transparency. A clear benefit of standard clauses such as these is to help property owners demonstrate to investors how they’re proactively engaging tenants on a range of sustainability issues."
For media inquiries or images, contact City of Sydney Senior Media Advisor Alex Cauchi on 0467803815 or acauchi@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
Pictured:
Alberto Tobia - City of Sydney BBP Support Officer Monica Barone - City of Sydney CEO Ben Thomas - City of Sydney Sustainability Programs Leader (Buildings) Claire Hashman - Dexus Legal Counsel and BBP Tenant and Communities Co-Chair Paul Wall - Dexus Head of Sustainability