Svenska fastighetsbolags arbete med miljöcertifiering av byggnader : En kvalitativ studie om lönsamhet, kunskap och bedömningar om likheter och skillnader utifrån fastighetsföretagens omfattning och struktur

Sammanfattning: Abstract - Swedish real estate companies’ work with environmental certification of buildings The real estate industry is a major part of environmental degradation throughout the world. It is especially important for real estate companies to work towards minimizing GHG-emissions through more strict construction standards, laws and newly developed cutting-edge technology. Real estate companies are continually tackling these environmentally dangerous issues by developing and acquiring buildings with a higher life-span and all-round better performance both indoors and outdoors. Environmental certificates serve as a recognized standard of this type of improvement. By building and acquiring green buildings the real estate companies prove that they are taking economic and social responsibility, as well as increasing potential marketing value. This candidate thesis is firstly analyzing and comparing GreenBuilding, Miljöbyggnad, BREEAM-SE and LEED. The theoretical section is based on previous research focusing on green buildings and green building certificates. We have also chosen to include references directly from the source, such as Naturvårdsverket, SGBC and USGBC. The empirical study is based on interviews with respondents (i.e. environmental managers, project leaders and managers of sustainability) representing a real estate company focused on either commercial real estate or residential buildings from all over the country. The objective of this thesis is to understand how and why real estate companies in Sweden currently work with green building certificates (or choose not to) based on the company’s scope and structure. From the results of the empirical study we have concluded that the choice of environmental certificate is based primarily on the company's internal guidelines, short- and long-term objectives, the nature and characteristics of the building. The main economic incentives are not increased rental income as we initially estimated, but decreased rates for capital debt for commercial buildings and government run investment grants for green housing buildings. We have concluded that most real estate companies have educated green building certificate experts in-house, but specially trained consultants are still widely used in larger constructional building projects. The respondents have noticed a trend of environmental interest in tenants during the last five years, but individuals do not really have a choice given the current Swedish housing market for rental apartments. The organizational tenants are especially interested in renting certified commercial premises in central Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. However, most respondents believe that the tenants are currently not possessing adequate information about the certificates due to communication difficulties between real estate companies and tenants. As well as a long and diverse certification processes depending on the certificate and manuals that are hard to interpret without proper construction engineering knowledge.