The market upheaval spawned by the global financial crisis put the issue of sustainability on the backburner for a while with companies more preoccupied with survival than with green issues, says Robert Peto, Vice-Chairman of Capital Markets at DTZ and a speaker on the panel entitled Sustainability sans Frontières. But it is now firmly back on people's agenda, he claims.
The market upheaval spawned by the global financial crisis put the issue of sustainability on the backburner for a while with companies more preoccupied with survival than with green issues, says Robert Peto, Vice-Chairman of Capital Markets at DTZ and a speaker on the panel entitled Sustainability sans Frontières. But it is now firmly back on people's agenda, he claims.
The renewed focus reflects a growing concern among building owners about having buildings that do not meet anticipated sustainability regulations and requirements in the long term, he notes. 'By that I mean that as a landlord you may have more difficulty letting a building that is not energy-efficient and you may have to spend money on reducing the energy input of a building and tackling issues related to careful use of resources.'
The point at which sustainability becomes a serious business consideration is the point at which it will factor into property valuations, stresses Peto, who has chaired the RICS Valuation Standards Board and RICS International Valuation Professional Group. He identifies two areas which currently hamper the ‘greening’ of the property business: fragmented and different measuring systems and the large pool of unsustainable existing buildings. The difficulty with existing buildings, which account for 99% of the total building stock, says Peto, is that there is currently insufficient information on the relationship between the embedded cost of building something new and the energy savings generated over the lifecycle of that investment.
The biggest challenge for sustainability experts is to draw up common sustainability metrics, he stresses. 'We need to understand what a green building is and that should be the same in the UK as it is in the Netherlands and France.'
Session: Sustainability sans Frontières - achieving equally green buildings around the world
Speaker: Robert Peto, Vice-Chairman Capital Markets DTZ, RICS President-Elect
When: Wednesday 17 March, 15.45 -16.45
Where: Auditorium Esterel, Level 5, Palais des Festivals
