As our sustainability policy states, “We aim to develop leading standards and improvement practices in our own offices and then help our clients do the same in their real estate.”

To drive that priority, we established a global internal program called ACT, A Cleaner Tomorrow. The program identifies, introduces and advances new sustainability and energy management initiatives in our offices around the world.

As part of the ACT initiative, we formed a global team of business operations experts to develop baseline performance measures to assess the company’s environmental impact. The team also identifies and champions organizational and operational changes that will enable us to meet our sustainability goals.

In 2009, as part of our global ACT initiative, nearly 1,000 Jones Lang LaSalle, LaSalle Investment Management and Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ employees, clients, family members and friends made pledges to take ACTion around the world. If implemented, these pledged ACTions could reduce global carbon emissions by a total of over 4.2 million pounds (1.9 million kgs). That is equivalent to saving over 20,000 trees or conserving almost 24 million gallons (90 million liters) of water.

We also voted for one of three World Wildlife Fund (WWF) initiatives that our company will support with a $50,000 contribution. Employees cast more than 2,250 votes and decided that Jones Lang LaSalle should contribute to the WWF’s fight on climate change in the Arctic. This initiative received 8 percent more votes than a similar program aimed at saving the Amazon Rainforest.

At 8:30 pm local time on March 28, 2009, Jones Lang LaSalle joined tens of millions of individuals and hundreds of cities across the world that pledged to turn off their lights in support of Earth Hour.  Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund begun in 2007 that has grown to include nearly 1200 cities and towns across 80 countries.

With a portfolio of approximately 1.4 billion square feet of office space worldwide managed on behalf of owners and occupiers, Jones Lang LaSalle managed the implementation of the Earth Hour program for many of its clients. Turning off the lights for one hour of operation at all of Jones Lang LaSalle’s managed buildings, in the spirit of the Earth Hour pledge, reduced energy use by more than 1.4 million kilowatt-hours, equating to approximately 2.1 million pounds of greenhouse gas reduction.