Benchmarking a building’s performance is a vital first step to improving its sustainability — getting this wrong can lead to costly mistakes. It can also divert investors from a sound strategy. A briefing note that outlines the variety of approaches being adopted in the commercial real estate world was produced by the International Sustainability Alliance (ISA) for the ExpoReal event in October. Here we review some of its key messages and discuss how the ISA is providing a robust benchmarking approach for members.

A survey of property investors in 2010 posed the question, “How will green buildings perform against non-green buildings?” An overwhelming 86 percent of respondents said green buildings will become more valuable (GVA Grimley, Green to Gold report, 2010). Little has happened since then that is likely to shake that conviction — if anything, the pressure