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11/30/2009 18:20
What's New
RICS Global Property Sustainability Survey Q3 2009
New York — November 30, 2009 —The attempt to raise profitability remains the key factor driving the interest in sustainable buildings globally; but the United States is still not placing as much importance on the issue as other markets, according to the latest Global Commercial Property Sustainability Survey, released by RICS today. Overall the majority of property professionals believe their clients place a level of importance on sustainability issues, with only 7 percent of respondents seeing it as not important. Germany, Brazil and China place the greatest importance on sustainability; however it is respondents in the United States who were the least positive, with 13 percent of respondents seeing environmental issues as not important at all, while only 9 percent saw it as very important. Russia, the UAE, India and Spain were the only other countries where a percentage of property professionals said they felt sustainability was not important to their clients, however in these instances the negative responses were outweighed by those placing greater importance on the issues. In the UK, over three-fourths of respondents indicated they felt sustainability was of importance to their clients, however none of them felt particularly strongly about it, indicating that more needs to be done to convince people of the benefits of green buildings. Overall it is profitability that is driving the push toward more sustainable buildings, with 38 percent of respondents globally citing this. In the United Kingdom, 57 percent of property professionals said they feel that it is business bottom line that is driving the sustainability agenda, with marketing purposes (29 percent) and competitive advantage (14 percent) also cited. “Considering the depth of the current downturn it is encouraging to see that so many countries are still placing a level of importance on sustainability,” said Ursula Hartenberger, Global Head of Sustainability Policy. “The fact that this is being driven by clients wanting to improve their bottom line shows that the economic argument for energy efficiency and green buildings may be growing in strength. It is worrying that some countries still seem slightly indifferent to the issues, and particularly with the Copenhagen summit on climate change coming up next month, it is a concern that the U.S. still does not appear as on board as other major economies.” Read the report here. ### About RICS & RICS Americas RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), with headquarters in London, is the leading organization of its kind in the world for more than 100,000 professionals in property, land, construction and related environmental issues. RICS Americas, based in New York and covering North, Central and South America and the Caribbean, has more than 3,000 members in commercial and residential development, construction and project management, brokerage, planning and finance, valuation and fine arts appraisal. For further information visit www.ricsamericas.org or e-mail ricsamericas@rics.org. |