Real estate industry leaders are talking sustainability and energy efficiency at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jones Lang LaSalle chief executive Colin Dyer writes in his blog.
 Colin Dyer |
Dyer, a veteran participant in the annual pow wow of world business leaders, is surprisingly interesting and engaging in the blog, as he recounts his experiences at the conference. He even mentions his client meetings, which breaks several unwritten rules of corporate blogging.
“The general mood of attendees last year was somewhere between ‘controlled fear and cautious pessimism,’” Dyer writes. “So far this time, the mood feels ‘cautiously optimistic.’”
On day one, the “social agenda” for the industry was the big topic of discussion, he writes.
“For real estate, this comes back heavily to the issue of carbon output, since we know that real estate produces nearly 40 percent of the world’s carbon, and to broader questions of sustainability,” he said.
Dyer served as chair of the Governors Meeting for Real Estate, a dinner which included 50 senior people from the real estate, hotel and financial sectors. The after-dinner discourse focused on retrofitting older buildings for energy efficiency.
“The big problem about energy management and carbon emissions from real estate is not so much building new properties effectively,” Dyer writes. “The issue is retrofitting energy efficiency into existing stock, the vast majority of all commercial property, which will still be with us in 2050.”
The evening’s central message was that energy efficiency is good business for buildings.
“The appetite for sustainability certainly hasn’t diminished during the past year,” he wrote. “If anything, it’s stronger, driven by the real cost savings potential.”
Dyer’s blog can be found here.
