The retail building market is BIG! The retail building community commands more than 67% of the existing buildings market, according to USGBC.When USGBC's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Retail is released in mid-2010--one of the available resources will be Green Retail Guide: Integrating LEED into Your Leasing Process, which is being produced by Portland-based Green Building Services.
Leases for retail spaces
with sustainability measures, such as sub-metering, written in make the green building sector field more level with greening leases. It's one
of the last bastions of commercial building's "business as usual" mentality that separates the responsibility for energy and water from the people who actually use -- or conserve -- these pricey resources.
The new retail leasing guide by Green Building Services is intended to fill a niche that the wide variety of
"green" lease guides and templates on the market don't cover.
In the commercial office and
residential sectors, leases tend to be pretty standard and renters
operate in just one market. HOWEVER... Retail leases vary greatly from site to
site and renters often operate across retail sites. As a result, leasors and leasees need to know about the process of greening their facilities and operations.
Large retailers are leading the way toward "green" leases, so the
guide is focused on the tenant perspective. Green Retail Guide: Integrating LEED into Your Leasing Process is written for the tenant...but landlords can certainly read it to know how their tenants want to save energy, use natural light, conserve water...and make their employees and customers happier and healthier with a greener building.