Negotiating green into your building or commercial space ? Monster ...

Getting to Green

By Scott Brooker

Unfortunately, not every building today is a ?green? building. While numbers continue to increase they still only represent a fraction of the market. In Ottawa, for example, certified green buildings represent 25-30% of the overall office market. The problem that many organizations face is that while ?green? is a criterion that is considered when selecting a location, it is only one of many. ?It can be very discouraging when your sustainability goals are sidelined in favour of other real estate considerations. ?However, if there isn?t a green building in the location, price range, or of the type that fits your organization, it doesn?t mean that you have to abandon achieving your green objectives.

Remember, when you are negotiating a lease or renewal, you are doing just that, negotiating. If you have identified a location that is, unfortunately, not a green building, that doesn?t necessarily mean it has to stay that way. Building renovations and greening initiatives can all be negotiated into your lease. For example, our Green Real Estate Practice recently worked on behalf of an environmental consultancy located in a B-class office building. The building met many of the firm?s criteria (save that it was not a green building), and given various factors, renewal was the preferred option. However, because the tenant was an environmental consultant, there was a corporate mandate to occupy sustainable office space. While negotiating the renewal ?(in addition to securing an advantageous rental rate) we were able to negotiate with the Landlord to commit to various environmental initiatives including green cleaning practices, use of low-voc products in the building common areas, pursuing environmental certification for the building, and ultimately allowing the tenant to achieve its sustainability objectives for the office.

Just because the building you have identified for your organization isn?t ?green? today, that doesn?t mean you can?t make it ?green? and achieve your sustainability objectives, along with your geographical and financial ones. If creating a sustainable productive environment is important to your organization, contact a green real estate expert to assist you in finding and negotiating the right deal to meet all of your real estate objectives.

Scott Brooker is a leading Green Real Estate expert and commercial real estate agent. He is a founding member of the Cushman & Wakefield Ottawa Green Real Estate Practice Group, and a founding member and regular presenter of the Better Buildings Breakfast Series. He sits on the Canada Green Building Council ? Ottawa Region Chapter Existing Buildings Committee. He works as a commercial real estate agent, integrating sustainability into the traditional corporate real estate process, for Cushman & Wakefield Ottawa.

Tags: commercial lease negotiation, green commercial space, Green Leases, greening initiatives, leasing green office space, negotiating a lease renewal, Ottawa Green Real Estate Practice Group, Scott Brooker

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2012 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Article 1, Going Green, Leasing Space, Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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