This document provides guidance for tenants on green leasing, selecting a green building, opportunities for green tenant improvements, and operating their office space in an environmentally friendly way. It recommends tenants create a green occupancy plan by considering objectives, selecting a building with strong environmental performance and credentials, implementing energy and water efficiency upgrades, using sustainable materials, and operating procedures to reduce waste and emissions. The landlord can support green goals through performance reporting, maintenance, and collaborating on improvement initiatives.

1. OCCUpYInG GREEn
Leasing a green building, implementing tenant
improvements and operating a green office
W hile landlords can improve the environmental
performance of a base building, the
occupants play the important roles of providing
Answering these and other questions about your
objectives will determine the extent of your
organization’s footprint that needs to be addressed
demand for such buildings and ensuring that their and the potential investment required. For example,
tenancies are green. a business can currently generate some strong
marketing benefits from greening its tenancy, without
Use the checklists to identify opportunities and needing to occupy a green building. In the future,
create plans for selecting an appropriate green it is likely that the market will consider a tenant’s
building, planning green tenant improvements and footprint to also include a pro-rated proportion of
operating your office in a green way. The checklists the footprint of the building it has chosen to occupy.
are intended to help tenants develop a green
occupancy plan. Some of the items may not be Do you have to occupy a green building in order
appropriate for all tenants. to demonstrate strong environmental credentials
or is it possible to create a green tenancy in a non-
Leasing a Green Building green existing building? Given that improving the
What are your objectives? existing stock can be a more important challenge
than creating new green buildings in some markets,
The clarity of your objectives is important for getting tenants of existing buildings who collaborate with
the most value out of investing in green premises. their landlord to help improve that building are
For example, do you want to: actually demonstrating a very high level of corporate
social responsibility.
Enjoy marketing benefits?
‘Future-proof ’ your business against a Clarity of objectives is also important for
changing business, consumer or employee understanding what benefits each ‘green’ building
market? offers you specifically beyond an umbrella green
building rating. Two buildings with the same rating
Catalyze cultural change in your
may offer you very different features, which may or
organization?
may not serve your objectives. For example, some
Respond to new expectations from your organizations might be motivated by providing
employees? healthy and comfortable work environments for
staff and thus seek high levels of IEQ (Indoor
You may want to refer to Colliers’ Why Green? Environmental Quality); while others might focus
For Tenants to explore other key questions your on energy performance in order to help fulfill their
organization might ask. carbon footprint reduction targets.

2. OCCUpYInG GREEn | SELECTInG A GREEn BUILDInG
SELECTInG A GREEn BUILDInG

Green BuildinG ratinGs
 What accredited green building ratings does the
building have and what is its history of ratings
like? Are the building’s performance ratings
‘Green Leases’
‘Green Lease’ is a term used to de-
improving or dropping over time?
scribe a lease with terms that act to
 What green building rating is the building capable share the risks, costs and benefits of
of achieving?
green buildings fairly between land-

lord and tenant. While the best Green
BuildinG Performance Leases tend to be tailored to the
 How does the building perform in the specific specific requirements and aspirations
environmental areas that are important to you? of the parties, some large landlords
 If it is a new building, is there a significant risk that and tenants have created standardized
the building may actually not perform as well in Green Leases.
operation as promised?
 Will the landlord and building managers maintain The Building Owners and Managers
the performance levels well into the future?
Association (BOMA) International
 What maintenance procedures does the landlord has developed a guide to writing a
have? What rate of response to performance
issues do they provide?
commercial real estate lease, including
green lease language.
 What publicly disclosed performance reporting
does the landlord do? e.g. do they produce an
annual sustainability report and participate in
leading indices? This can be an indication of a high
level of commitment to improving performance.
 What performance reporting (e.g. base building
and/or tenancy energy usage, base building water
usage and waste management) does the landlord
provide?
 Does the landlord/manager employ contractors
that satisfy the same environmental standards?
e.g. cleaners that satisfy waste management and
energy efficiency policies.
 Do you get a share of any energy cost savings?

suPPort
 Will the building and landlord support you well
in achieving good environmental performance
in your tenancy? Is there the potential to
collaborate with the landlord and create a great
greening success story for the whole building?
 Will other tenants in the building be supportive
of green initiatives?

3. OCCUpYInG GREEn | OppORTUnITIES
OppORTUnITIES FOR TEnAnT IMpROVEMEnTS

enerGy – liGhtinG
If the landlord owns the lighting, can you
incentivize them to invest in a new system,

materials
 Use Less – While we might not yet have the
technology of Life Cycle Assessment to quantify
the impact of materials in a development or
maybe by offering them a proportion of your
tenant improvement, we can apply the over-riding
energy savings for a period of time?
principle of Use Less. For example, halving the
 Office Lighting – Use T5 Triphosphur fluorescent amount of particular material halves the amount of
lamps with high-frequency ballasts (less flicker) in its life cycle impacts attributable to the project. Can
high-efficiency fittings. Avoid incandescent bulbs partition walls, joinery and furniture be minimized?
and low voltage downlights (unless new high-
 Reuse Existing – Reuse as much as possible
efficiency models) and explore LED as the costs
from an existing tenancy, e.g. ceilings, floor finishes,
reduce over time. Aim for less than 1.5 Watts
furniture, partitions, etc.
per meter2 per 100 lux (SI unit of illumiance and
luminous emittance)  Recycled Materials – Use products with high
amounts of recycled content. This helps to ‘Close
 Controls – Install timers to turn lights off,
the Loop’.
occupancy sensors to turn on lights without the
use of light switches and daylight sensors to enable  Reusability/Recyclability – Use products
dimming of perimeter lighting when natural light for elements such as partition walls, joinery and
levels are good furniture that can be reused at the end of the
current use or otherwise be recycled. Leading
 Zoning – Use small zones (ie 1,000 SF) to
furniture manufacturers are designing products that
minimize the number of lights turned on when one
can easily be disassembled and the component
person enters a dark office.
materials separated for recycling.
 Task Lighting – Use lower ambient light levels
 Carpet – Choose modular carpet tiles over
combined with task lighting at workstations.
broadloom. Carpet is a major source of waste.

Tiles can have a much longer life and some are
recyclable.
enerGy – other
 Timber – Use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-
 Appliances – Use efficient hot and chilled
certified timber. This is a global and highly regarded
drinking water units, fridges, dishwashers, etc.
standard for sustainable timber and timber
 Supplementary Air-Conditioning – Avoid or products. Otherwise, use plantation of recycled
use energy-efficient equipment (e.g. a coefficient timbers. Do not use rainforest timbers or timbers
of performance [COp] of a least 3 and preferably that may be supplied through the black market.
5). Install controls to ensure air-conditioning is off
 Formaldehyde – Avoid composite wood
when the room is unoccupied.
products, such as medium-density fibreboard
 Sub-metering – Install separate metering for (MDF) and particle board that is bonded using
uses such as lighting, IT rooms and general power urea formaldehyde, which is a toxin that leaches
to enable performance monitoring. out over time and affects indoor air quality (IAQ).

 PVC – Avoid. e.g. use linoleum (made from natural
Water products) instead of vinyl flooring.
 Fittings, Fixtures and Appliances – Use  Paints, Sealants and Adhesives – Use low- or
efficient taps, showerheads and dishwashers. non-volatile organic compound (VOC)-emitting
products.

indoor environmental Quality
 Large Copiers and Printers – Locate away
from people and with a dedicated air extract to
avoid volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions.
 Indoor Plants – provide psychological benefits
to occupants and some select species also remove
VOCs from the air, improving IAQ.
 Demolition and Construction Waste – Have
contractors separate materials to be disposed

of, send to recycling facilities where possible and
oPerational Waste provide certification of this having been done.
 Recycling – provide bins, possibly with cabinetry,
to collect recyclable materials.

4. OCCUpYInG GREEn | OppORTUnITIES
OppORTUnITIES FOR OpERATIOnAL pERFORMAnCE

manaGement
 Policy and Plan – Develop a corporate level
policy that commits the organization to achieving
set targets (e.g. greenhouse gas, waste and paper
 PaPer
 Procurement – Choose 80-100% recycled
content with non-chlorine bleaching. Recycled
content should be post-consumer rather than
use reduction) by a set time. The plan for how this post-industrial as the former has a much greater
will be achieved should include a strategy for how impact in terms of ‘Closing the Loop’. non-recycled
employees will be engaged and encouraged to play content should be certified (e.g. FSC) plantation
their part. pulp. Chlorine is known to be toxic to humans.
 Report – Report progress to staff to highlight the  Double-Sided Printing – Set printers and
benefits and encourage participation. copies to double-sided as default. While some
people may complain that they are wasting more
 Offsetting – purchase offsets to offset the
paper while they are getting used to the new set-
greenhouse gas emissions that you are not able to
up, they soon become acclimatized. This practice
avoid.
is commonplace among leading organizations, and

can save a lot of paper and money.
enerGy  Avoid Printing It – Create a culture where
 Procurement – Ensure efficiency of computers, people print only when they really need to,
copiers, printers, faxes, etc. including reading more on screen.
 Computers – Enable Energy Star mode to  Personal Inboxes – Use printers with personal
automatically switch to ‘sleep’ mode or minimize inboxes, meaning that people have to go to
power in ‘stand by’ mode. Choose laptops over the machine to print, reducing the number of
desktops, avoid old cathode ray tube (box) uncollected documents
monitors and, when procuring desktops, select  Faxes – Use electronic faxes.
smaller monitors.
 Reuse Used Paper – While it can cause
 Settings – Ensure that energy-efficiency settings problems to reuse paper in copiers and printers,
are activated on all equipment with such features used paper can be reused as notepaper.
(especially hot water boilers) and turn off at the

wall when not in use for significant periods of time.
Standby modes still use a lot of energy. transPort
 Temperature – Have slightly higher set points  Flights – Encourage minimization and provide
to enable the landlord to reduce air-conditioning alternatives, such as video conferencing, perhaps
energy use, maybe as part of Green Lease through an external facility.
negotiations  Car Use – Encourage public transport, car-

pooling, cycling and walking as alternatives. perhaps
provide staff with public transport tickets.
Waste
 Paper Recycling – provide recycling boxes for
each desk. negotiate with the cleaners to empty
them.
 Other Recycling – provide collection containers
 other Procurement
 Local – purchase locally produced products to
avoid transport impacts, especially air travel.
for glass, plastic and metals (separated or co-  Printer/Copier Cartridges – Use
mingled depending on removal contract) in readily remanufactured/refilled toner cartridges.
assessable places.  Cleaning Products – Use biodegradable, non-
 Waste Bins – Remove as many as possible so toxic products.
that people learn to put their paper in the paper
recycling bins and minimize the amount of waste
they produce. These bins are typically messier Colliers International also produces a Green Guide for
than paper recycling boxes and so removing them Developers and Managers. please contact a Colliers
helps tidy the office. professional to learn more or go to www.colliersmn.com.
This document has been prepared by Colliers International for general information only. Colliers International makes no guarantees, representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied,
regarding the information including, but not limited to, warranties of content, accuracy and reliability. Any interested party should undertake their own inquiries as to the accuracy of the information.
Colliers International excludes unequivocally all inferred or implied terms, conditions and warranties arising out of this document and excludes all liability for loss and damages arising there from.
Colliers International is a worldwide affiliation of independently owned and operated companies. This publication is the copyrighted property of Colliers International and /or its licensor(s).
© 2009. All rights reserved.