Get ready for green lease negotiations, whether you’re the commercial tenant or building owner.

The goal is to encourage energy and water use reductions to create a green office environment.

But there are many obstacles to achieving the elusive “green office” goal in landlord/tenant arrangements because there are so many variables to controlling overhead costs like electric and water bills.

To help businesses navigate these troubled waters, the California Sustainability Alliance has just published its Green Leases Toolkit, version 2.0. The toolkit helps commercial landlords and tenants:

• educate their organizations about green office and green building practices
• develop their own green leasing policies and requirements
• measure and compare green attributes of different buildings, and
• develop specific green lease language.

Right now the green lease idea is voluntary, but it may not be long before state governments start mandating the idea to help them meet their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction promises.

Like so many things, California’s pushing ahead aggressively to reduce its collective carbon footprint and encourage more economical water and electricity use. Secondary goals include reducing stormwater runoff and commuting times for workers.

For example, the Green Leases Toolkit helps businesses select appliances based on their energy efficiency, as rated by EPA’s Energy Star program.

One of the early adopters to the Green Lease idea is Thomas Properties Group, which is building California’s The MetroStudio@Lankershim. The developers are using the toolkit to adopt green building standards and earn kudos from EPA’s Green Building program. The company has set goals to reduce:

• water use by 30%
• construction waste that goes to landfills by 90%
• stormwater runoff by increasing infiltration into groundwater, and
• carbon emissions by 40% to 50%.

Click here for details about MetroStudio’s green office plans. A list of Thomas Properties Group’s projects with the Alliance is here.

The Alliance’s Green Lease Toolkit is here.

Tags: California sustainability Alliance, green building, Green Office