April 21, 2017
This Earth Day your firm has an opportunity to join world-leading firms in declaring support for six simple principles that advance greater sustainability in leased space. All too often firms claim that because they lease most – or all – of their space, they cannot lead in the move to more sustainable real estate. And then landlords claim that the best tenants may not care about more sustainable and healthier space.
More than half dozen world-leading firms have had enough of this splitting of accountability and have come together to lead. They are also extending an offer to other corporate tenants to join them in publicly endorsing the linked Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles. These six simple principles listed below all help corporate tenants advance their own commitment to sustainable business through urging landlords to offer sustainable options and relevant data in a timely manner.
This is an effort that will directly benefit your firm as it increases your firms negotiating power when it seeks more sustainable and healthy real estate and energy – especially in smaller leased space around the world. Some of the world’s fastest growing and most sought after corporate tenants have already committed to the Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles including Akamai, Anthem, Intuit, Lenovo, LinkedIn Oracle, Pegasystems and Teradyne. Your firm could join them as original signers of the Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles if your firm can commit to supporting the Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles over the 30 day “Earth Month” beginning April 22nd.
Sustainability Roundtable Inc. (SR Inc) Member-clients requested that the linked Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles be created to build on the success of the Corporate Renewable Energy Buyers’ Principles and the Corporate Colocation & Cloud Buyers’ Principles (which now regularly appear referenced in RFPs issued by top corporate buyers the world over). Consequently, SR Inc created the Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles with guidance from Patrick Flynn, Senior Director of Sustainability at Salesforce (who helped lead on the creation of the Corporate Colocation & Cloud Buyers’ Principles). Signing companies, however, need not be SR Inc Members and absolutely no costs or obligations are required. Indeed, all sustainability conscious commercial tenants are encouraged to sign onto this simple but important statement of shared principles.
Pro Bono Service: If your company does join these world leading companies as an original signer of the Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles before May 23rd 2017, SR Inc will donate to your firm on a pro bono – zero cost – basis, SR Inc’s proprietary, editable, Sustainable Leasing Strategy Playbook developed with leading Member-clients over seven plus years, featuring actionable Executive Guidance & Tools for Site Selection, RFPs (including negotiating leverage matrix), LOIs, Lease Language & Work Letter (for tenant build-out).
The companies signing the Sustainable Tenants’ Leasing Principles look forward to the prospect of your firm joining them to send a needed and clear signal to a fragment, multi-trillion dollar, landlord market about the fact the best corporate tenants do care about the need to move to sustainably healthy workplaces. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me or Brittany Doherty, Program Director of SR Inc’s Sustainable Business & Enterprise Roundtable, if you think that your firm may want to lead in this simple, highly efficient and effective manner this Earth Month.
Jim Boyle is CEO & Chairman of Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. For nearly eight years, Jim has led full-time teams of diverse experts assisting world-leading corporations, real estate owners, and federal agencies in their move to greater sustainability. He has led in developing SR Inc’s confidential, industry specific, annual management assessment and recommendation process for more sustainable operations and real estate that is compatible with major public standards globally. Further, he has directed the development of hundreds of pieces of SR Inc original Executive Guidance & Tools and led in the creation of SR Inc’s Renewable Energy Procurement Services (REPS) practice, which represents top corporate off-takers across the U.S. and internationally. Before founding SR Inc, Mr. Boyle advised fast growth technology firms, private equity firms, and institutional investors as an adviser on real estate strategy and implementation, and before that, as a large law firm attorney assisting corporate and investment clients on complex real estate and environmental compliance-related issues. Jim is a graduate of Middlebury College and Boston College Law School, who early in his career served as a federal law clerk and as an aide to John F. Kerry in the U. S. Senate.
Brittany Doherty, Program Director joined SR Inc at the start of 2015. Brittany has two years of experience managing and writing Sustainability Reports for the Town of Dartmouth in accordance with the comprehensive, credible, and widely used standard, the Global Report Initiative (GRI). Brittany graduated with a B.S in Organizational Behavior Management & Sustainability from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, while actively developing a variety of sustainability initiatives for the university. Brittany served as the President of Net Impact at her university for three years, was a member of the Fair Labor Association Student Committee for two years, and also launched a pilot-teaching-program to integrate Sustainability into the global network of Junior Achievement. While Brittany was attending graduate school, earning a certificate in Environmental Policy, she worked as an Analyst for the Town of Dartmouth, assisting in the advancement of the Town’s economic, environmental and social policies. Outside of her work at SR Inc, Brittany has volunteered on the Sustainable Belmont Committee and assisted in the Town’s GHG Inventory project, as part of the Climate Action Plan. She also served as a valuable member for the Belmont Solar Campaign (BSC).
