Energy and Sustainability Services is one of our global service offerings. We work with occupiers and investors to develop corporate sustainability strategies, manage sustainable development projects and retrofits, and implement sustainable building operations management.

In 2007, our Energy and Sustainability Services practice in the Americas managed $425 million of client energy expense. We delivered specialized energy services to a portfolio of more than 10,000 properties. We documented $38 million in energy savings for these clients during the year. And we reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 132,000 metric tons.

With 75 LEED® -accredited professionals in the United States today, we have managed 40 projects totaling more than 25 million square feet that have either earned, or on completion are expected to be awarded, LEED certification.  

LaSalle is also creating a sustainable property operations best practices template for office, industrial, retail and multi-family assets. This is a voluntary program that LaSalle’s portfolio managers share with property managers. Its objective is to define effective sustainability options, including low- and no-cost efforts that make meaningful impacts. The program will be rolled out in the Americas by mid-2008, with the goal of introducing it to LaSalle portfolio managers globally.

In November 2007 we acquired Upstream, the UK’s leading real estate sustainability consultancy. The benchmarking that Upstream undertakes is becoming an industry standard and a key influencer for institutional investors, developers and other real estate stakeholders.

In Chennai, one of India’s major technology centers, we provided planning and development advisory services for two large, environmentally sustainable office campuses.

Olympia Technology Park is a 1.8 million square foot Class A office development set on an 8.4 acre campus. The project earned a Gold LEED®  certification rating.

RMZ Millenia Business Park is a 2.5 million square foot campus currently under development. The planning and implementation services we provided helped the project win a Gold LEED®  pre-certification rating.

Our Sustainability S-Score is an example of a sustainability product developed and tested internally in the Americas and subsequently shared with our clients. When we set out to benchmark energy consumption and sustainability activities in our own offices, we found it a challenge to assemble consistent and comparable metrics across the space we occupy globally.

In response, we developed a Sustainability S-Score framework. This comprehensive scale, which is easy to use and understand, allows us to assess the current state of sustainability efforts as an initial step toward improving them.

Assessing a property across a range of relevant scoring criteria produces a sustainability S-Score that individual offices can use as a benchmark to measure progress in a specific facility and to compare it to other portfolio assets.

Electric Consumption Trend (KWH)

Natural Gas Consumption Trend (MMBTU)

Water Consumption Trend (Cubic ft)

District Cooling Consumption Trend (Ton-Hrs)

District Heating Consumption Trend (MMBTU)

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trend (Carbon Footprint)

Utility Expense Trend ($)

Sustainability Practices in Place and Documented

Energy & Sustainability Projects Completed

Energy & Sustainability Projects Identified

Sustainable Office Guide Read/Survey Completed

Bonus: Facility Certified in Sustainability or Energy

The size and complexity of many client properties in the U.S. do not justify placing a full-time building engineer on site. Members of our Mobile Engineering Services (MES) team drive from one such property to another, providing engineering services to 3,500 properties.

We have committed to replace all trucks and vans in the MES fleet with hybrid vehicles. Given current delivery lead times, the process will take more than a year to complete. At its conclusion, we will double the fleet’s average gas mileage, save 50,000 gallons of gasoline a year and reduce our CO2 emissions by 400 tons per year.

We manage 20 million square feet of property in our Chicago region in the Americas,  including our own corporate headquarters. We have worked with our cleaning services vendor to develop a program so that all cleaning supplies, equipment and cleaning policies meet LEED “Green Product” standards. In addition, disposal of janitorial paper products and trash bags meets the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Comprehensive Procurement Guidelines.

We plan to expand the program to cover our entire, 200-million-square-foot, US management portfolio.

We introduced a range of innovative design components when we redesigned our Chicago headquarters space in 2006. These allowed us to reduce square footage per person by nearly 25 percent while creating a more inviting, productive and sustainable work environment.

Without these changes, we would have needed another two full floors, and related additional energy usage, in the building. We also would have incurred an additional $22 million in operating costs over a 10-year lease term and $9 million in capital costs.

We furnished our new space with sustainable workstation furniture and chairs. Even the chairs in employee cafes – which replace traditional fabric with surplus automotive seat belt material – reflect sustainable design principles.

In our Canary Wharf and Hanover Square offices in London, we incorporated a range of sustainable polices to build out our space. We specified low-energy lighting fixtures and sophisticated lighting controls. We restricted operating hours for air conditioning systems. We partnered with green suppliers of furniture and carpets.

The offices also feature advanced video-conferencing facilities to reduce travel needs. Shower facilities encourage cycling or walking to work. Comprehensive recycling programs focus on paper, plastic, glass and metal cans. Thanks to rigorous waste management policies, we recycled nearly 75 percent of  construction waste during fit-out.

To support and lead the way in the shift to sustainability that is gaining momentum in China, we conducted a sustainability road show in four major Chinese cities. We held workshops for key clients in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. We also conducted media briefings and held internal sessions with our own people. We published a white paper on Sustainable Real Estate Development in China as part of the initiative.

The Deutsche Bank Building in Jakarta, which we manage, was presented with an environmental award by the Governor of Jakarta City. The building complies with the Life Environment Program introduced by the city in 2006. The Deutsche Bank Building earned the award by satisfying a series of criteria related to waste-water handling, air quality, compliance with the city’s non-smoking policy and reporting requirements.

Early in 2008, three Development Management projects in Massachusetts were awarded LEED® Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

In 2003, our Development team introduced the LEED® Core & Shell Pilot Program at the start of pre-development for 670 Albany Street in Boston. As a result, the project earned LEED® Core & Shell Certification as we helped the building achieve:

• 20% reduction in energy consumption
• 40% reduction in water usage
• 90% recycling of construction waste

Two other developments, for ISO New England and Harvard University, ®earned the prestigious LEED® Gold Certification.

As Development Manager for a two-building complex in Holyoke, we helped ISO New England achieve:

• 37% savings in energy consumption
• 26% savings in potable water consumption
• 96% recycling of construction waste

For Harvard University, we served as Development Manager for a new graduate student housing facility and parking garage in Cambridge. The project features:

• On-site water storage re-used for irrigation
• 97% construction waste recycling
• 21% reduction in energy consumption
• 25% of building materials were recycled materials

LaSalle Investment Management, our global real estate money management business, has established a Sustainability Task Force. The task force is led by LaSalle’s Chairman and comprised of members from all regions of the world. Its members have been asked to develop best practices and policies governing sustainability activities for LaSalle-managed assets globally.

LaSalle’s first responsibility to clients remains delivering superior investment performance. But we also realize the opportunity to be the leader in sustainable property investment. Over the mid- to longer-term, sustainable assets are likely to reflect cap rate differentials affecting value, and LaSalle intends to stay in front of the market in this area.

Since its creation, the task force had undertaken activities in four areas: new investments, existing investments, training and LaSalle facilities and operations.