Australia is leading the charge in the global real estate sector’s bid to reduce its environmental impact, according to the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark 2013 Report, which was released in Amsterdam.
The report is based on sustainability data gathered from 543 property companies and funds, providing aggregate information on 49,000 properties across the globe.
According to the report, the real estate sector decreased energy consumption by 4.8 per cent over 2011-2012—equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 163,000 homes. Over the same period, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 2.5 per cent, and water consumption decreased by 1.2 per cent.
Australia continues to demonstrate global leadership in sustainability performance as the top-performing region in the survey, whereas performance differences between Asia, Europe, and North America are becoming smaller.
Despite the continued focus of EU regulators on the built environment, Europe lags behind other regions, with only a small decrease in energy consumption (-0.7 per cent).
In North America, reductions in energy consumption are the largest globally, with a decrease of -6.6 per cent in energy consumption (1,235 GWh) and -4.8 per cent for greenhouse gas emissions (317,600 metric tonnes).
The report’s market coverage has grown substantially in 2013, with the number of companies and funds disclosing information on sustainability performance increasing by nearly a quarter compared to 2012. Much of this increase can be attributed to Asia and the United States.
For further information and to download the report and press materials including graphs and charts, visit http://gresb.com
