NRDC report relates green infrastructure investments to commercial property value [Infographic]

The Natural Resources Defense Council has released The Green Edge: How Commercial Property Investment in Green Infrastructure Creates Value -- a first-ever illustrative and well-documented report that helps demonstrate the value of green infrastructure. It draws from available published material to capture the multitude of tangible, monetizable non-water quality and water quality benefits that green infrastructure investments (trees, rain gardens, and porous pavement, rainwater harvesting cisterns, bioswales, etc.) can unlock for the commercial real estate sector, including commercial property owners and their tenants.

By assessing common commercial real estate portfolio types, including medium-sized office buildings, midrise apartment buildings and retail centers, the new NRDC report shows that cumulative benefits to property owners can exceed the millions over the long-term, both when doing new construction and at existing developed sites.

Green infrastructure and other green building practices are increasingly becoming a quality benchmark for the private sector, because they illustrate a developer’s commitment to healthier, sustainable communities and place-making, while creating new measurable value added for property owners and tenants alike. From higher rents and property values, increased retail sales, energy savings, local financial incentives to reduced life-cycle and maintenance costs, check out The Green Edge’s blog series for a summary and visual infographics of the findings from research:.

Larry Levine, NRDC senior water attorney and author, writes about the findings of the new report here:

New Report Shows How Green Infrastructure Investments Can Create Value for Commercial Property Owners and Tenants

Paul Davis, sustainable finance fellow with NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation, shares more:

The Green Edge: A new report on the benefits of investing in natural landscapes

Alisa Valderrama, senior project finance attorney with NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation, blogs here:

What is the "Green Edge?"

The report's main findings are summarized in the infographic:

The editors of Building Design+Construction present 10 “Great Solutions” that highlight innovative technology and products that can be used to address some of the many problems Building Teams face in their day-to-day work. Readers are encouraged to submit entries for Great Solutions; if we use yours, you’ll receive a $25 gift certificate. Look for more Great Solutions in 2012 at: www.bdcnetwork.com/greatsolutions/2012.

Rainscreen system installed at the west building envelope expansion of the University of Arizona’s Meinel Optical Sciences Center in Tucson, with its folded glass wall and copper-paneled, breathable cladding over precast concrete.

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Rainscreen system installed at the west building expansion of the University of Arizona’s Meinel Optical Sciences Center in Tucson, with its folded glass wall and copper-paneled, breathable cladding over precast concrete.

| Dec 10, 2011

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Two innovations—program manager Gafcon’s SharePoint360 project management platform and a new BIM “wall creator” add-on developed by ClarkDietrich Building Systems for use with the Revit BIM platform and construction consultant—show how fabricators and owner’s reps are stepping in to fill the gaps between construction and design that can typically be exposed by working with a 3D model.