This week in Washington, D.C., the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Alliance announced the 2015 Green Lease Leaders. The program, developed in 2013, recognizes owners, tenants, and brokers who effectively utilize leases to implement green and sustainable practices in any major property type.

Tension between tenants, owners, and brokers has historically made a challenge out of employing green strategies through leasing. Overtime, however, innovative strategies to improve energy-efficiency and performance measuring have enabled Green Lease Leaders to save nearly $3 billion solely in the office sector. The leaders’ strategies serve as a blueprint for ways to maximize energy and cost savings for both owners and tenants in written leases as well as ensure varied property types are sustainably built and maintained. With the critical role brokers play in real estate transactions like leasing in mind, the program extended to include brokers just this year.

Here are the 2015 Green Lease Leaders from IMT:

Landlords

  • Bentall Kennedy
  • Boston Properties
  • Cadillac Fairview
  • Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management
  • Forest City
  • NEO Realty Group
  • Shorenstein
  • TIAA-CREF
  • Weingarten


Tenants

  • Capital One
  • TD Bank Group


Brokers

  • Meade Boutwell (CBRE)
  • Randy Harrell (CBRE)
  • Laurie McMahon (DTZ)
  • Greta Garner (Green Coast Realty)
  • Brant Smith (NEO Realty Group)

  • Sally Wilson (NGKF)

This year, Green Lease Leaders own or lease 415 million square feet in North American buildings, bringing the grand total to over 800 million square feet of commercial space since the creation of the program. This year’s leaders also represent nearly every major property type, including offices, retail space, and manufacturing sites.

Read more about this year’s winners from IMT and to learn more about the benefits of green leases, visit the Green Lease Library.