Environmental certification of commercial real estate

Sammanfattning: Over the last ten years there has been a significant increase in environmental certification of buildings in the world. More and more people are getting aware of the fact that buildings use a lot of energy and affect the wellbeing of the community and our planet. The research has the last 15 years therefore produced several studies investigating different options available to decrease buildings environmental impact. Through the following report a summary is done reviewing the many opinions in the field. The goal with this Bachelor of Science thesis is thus to investigate the issue “Why should property owners and tenants choose environmentally certified buildings? What are the benefits and drawbacks for respective part?” To answer this question an extensive literature review over available materials in this field were made, both internationally and in Sweden. A closer investigation was then conducted through interviews for the market in Sweden to fill in gaps in information. The interviewed parties were all active within the field and had different perspectives representing both property owners and tenants. In our results can we see several benefits for property owners in possessing environmentally certified buildings. Some of the more significant of these benefits are potentially higher rental levels, market values, lower vacancies and energy savings resulting in better net operating income. Add thereto a competitive advantage against other property owners and a decreased risk of being deselected by tenants. Motivating why the tenant should be located in certified real estate is not as simple though, which in Sweden might be because of the high standards in many buildings and that it is hard to directly connect several of the benefits to the certification. Though, generally seen because of that the demand still is high should reasons as better indoor climate, increased productivity and quality assurance be strong arguments to choose environmental certified buildings. Furthermore could the disagreement in the business be solved with more transparency about the cost situation and clearer conformity between the different environmental certification systems.