How green leases promote sustainable real estate management

Green leases for Germany 

More and more corporate decisions take the carbon footprint into account, with the buildings that companies occupy also playing a key role here. Attention must be paid to low-resource operation, but growing health and well-being requirements also need to be considered. In response to climate change and the growing demand for sustainable solutions, green leases are becoming increasingly important in real estate.

Green leases in practice: Uniform standards for greater sustainability

At international level, numerous “green” regulations already exist for leases. In France, for example, a green annex to commercial leases has been mandatory since 2013. While other European countries have passed legislation to define standards, Germany has left it to real estate sector associations to fill the gap. As a result, various market initiatives have sought to produce a definition of a green lease that is valid for Germany over the past decade.

The German Property Federation (ZIA) has provided a recognised definition for this purpose:

The summary from the German Property Federation (ZIA) aptly describes the goal of a green lease as the synergy of sustainable use of the property by the tenant and sustainable management by the landlord, thereby creating quantifiable added value for both parties.

Green leases at Deka Immobilien: Sustainability in asset management

To safeguard the quality of our real estate portfolio in the long term, we at Deka Immobilien see the broad implementation of green lease clauses as an integral part of our asset management activities. To this end, we have developed regulations that fit our overarching sustainability strategy and are aimed at ensuring a higher-quality experience for the tenants in our buildings.
Together with our tenants, we develop improvement measures on the basis of our active dialogue with them on the building’s resource consumption. This process simultaneously ensures the availability of data for the tenants’ corporate reporting regarding the building. We help our tenants create healthy workspaces for their employees by providing guidance on the choice of materials for extensions and conversions or the selection of cleaning agents. 
To achieve our goals we need to work together – to preserve our livelihood and economic survival, and to protect the climate for generations to come.