Recent legislation adopted by an increasing number of cities across the U.S. has mandated that buildings of a certain size (depending on the city) disclose their energy use to the city (through LEED and/or Energy Star evaluation), which the city then makes public. Researchers are already analyzing the effects that such legislation has on energy use among buildings. However, no study has specifically evaluated these trends in relationship to the real estate performance of a building. This study will assess the potential links between the market performance of sustainable assets before and after implementation of the disclosure policies, given market cycles, and before and after a building has achieved the Energy Star label and/or LEED certification. Because of their ability to provide good amounts of data and populations with a relatively high sensitivity to sustainability practices, the study will focus on Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.
Principal Investigators:
Sofia Dermisi, Real Estate and Urban Design and Planning, UW
Hyun Woo “Chris” Lee, Construction Management, UW
Youngjun Choe, Industrial Systems and Engineering, UW
Sponsors:
The Real Estate Institute
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Scheduled completion: April 2019