Sustainability

NAREIT and a number of real estate organizations have written to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board to explain their reservations with SASB's work thus far in developing proposed sustainability standards for real estate.

The House of Representatives passed the “Tenant Star” bill on April 21, putting the legislation on track to be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

REITs' investments in sustainability keep rising, as do their returns on those investments, according to research on NAREIT's Leader in the Light (LITL) program.

A study of data from LITL found that participating companies increased their total investment in energy efficient projects by roughly 30 percent over their three-year moving average from 2011 to 2013. The study, which was conducted by RealFoundations, also determined that savings in 2014 from sustainability projects nearly doubled the previous three-year moving average. A similar comparison found that return on investment for those projects was up approximately 40 percent -- a 54 percent increase when compared with the ROI of 26 percent for projects between 2011 and 2013.