State of Green Greenprint Performance Report, Volume 12 report promo image
Report Summary:

A whirlwind of a year for real estate, the economy, and the world, 2020 saw the COVID-19 pandemic disrupt everything—the real estate market, the business of our tenants, and the strategy of our investors. This disruption also posed a threat to progress toward environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals: Would the momentum seen over the past few years be lost as focus shifted to COVID response? Fortunately, the answer is no.

State of Green: Greenprint Performance Report, Volume 12 reports just the opposite: leading real estate companies doubled down on the importance of sustainability, from carbon emissions reductions to healthy building improvements. This global annual benchmark shows:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic did not slow down investment or progress on sustainability indicators – in fact, both improved significantly in 2020, with carbon emissions dropping a record 12%
  • Leading global real estate companies are prioritizing sustainability as an investment strategy with strong financial, social, and environmental returns, as Greenprint members reported over 14,000 ESG projects in 2020
  • The importance of ESG in real estate continues to rise, and an increasing number of companies are committing to ULI Greenprint’s net zero carbon operations by 2050 goal, covering over $570 billion in assets under management (AUM) to date

In 2020, the collective Greenprint community – covering 46 companies and 12,000 properties in 30 countries – reported:

  • Carbon emissions: 12.4% reduction
  • Energy use: 12.5% reduction
  • Water use: 8.1% reduction
  • Landfill waste: 11.7% reduction

These reductions are significantly higher than typical annual reductions of 1-3%.

Read the full report to learn more about why and how real estate companies continue to make strides toward decarbonizing the built environment.

Report Summary: A whirlwind of a year for real estate, the economy, and the world, 2020 saw the COVID-19 pandemic disrupt everything—the real estate market, the business of our tenants, and the strategy of our investors. This disruption also posed a threat to progress toward environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals: Would the momentum seen over the past few years be lost as focus shifted to COVID response? Fortunately, the answer is no.

State of Green: Greenprint Performance Report, Volume 12 reports just the opposite: leading real estate companies doubled down on the importance of sustainability, from carbon emissions reductions to healthy building improvements. This global annual benchmark shows:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic did not slow down investment or progress on sustainability indicators – in fact, both improved significantly in 2020, with carbon emissions dropping a record 12%
  • Leading global real estate companies are prioritizing sustainability as an investment strategy with strong financial, social, and environmental returns, as Greenprint members reported over 14,000 ESG projects in 2020
  • The importance of ESG in real estate continues to rise, and an increasing number of companies are committing to ULI Greenprint’s net zero carbon operations by 2050 goal, covering over $570 billion in assets under management (AUM) to date

In 2020, the collective Greenprint community – covering 46 companies and 12,000 properties in 30 countries – reported:

  • Carbon emissions: 12.4% reduction
  • Energy use: 12.5% reduction
  • Water use: 8.1% reduction
  • Landfill waste: 11.7% reduction

These reductions are significantly higher than typical annual reductions of 1-3%.

Read the full report to learn more about why and how real estate companies continue to make strides toward decarbonizing the built environment.