The key words for the property market increasingly are; “reduce, re-use and re-cycle”.

This third King Sturge Property Sustainability Matters report again emphasises the four targets for property investors, developers, financiers, occupiers and policy makers:

a) Be prepared for climate change and uncertainty; Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the European droughts of 2003 and 2006 are warning signs
b) The cost of property insurance and litigation are rising, so is the cost of energy over the medium to long term and as is property maintenance
c) Legislation is changing – perhaps not as fas as some had hoped – but as laws change, property markets also change
d) The concept and concerns about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are here to stay and increasingly relevant to property, as this report demonstrates.

The key words for the property market increasingly are; “reduce, re-use and re-cycle”.

This third King Sturge Property Sustainability Matters report again emphasises the four targets for property investors, developers, financiers, occupiers and policy makers:

In the built environment, partly to win hearts and minds, but also to be pragmatic and to obtain planning permission, both Gazeley (its
Eco-Template warehouse at Bedford, UK) and ProLogis (its Sideways project, Stoke on Trent, UK) have developed and are now constructing warehouses which aim to capture grey water and use solar and wind turbine energy.

• A sea-change in corporate positioning on climate change and sustainability is discernible over the past 8 months. Perceptions are changing most noticeably among US-based companies, many of which have publicly asked for greater regulatory certainty on greenhouse gas emissions, despite relative inactivity from Washington DC.
• The European Commission, however, has begun infringement procedures against a number of states which have failed to notify it of sufficient steps having been taken towards implementation of Directives.

This is the third annual King Sturge report under the title “Property Sustainability Matters”. In less than three years the concerns and media coverage of this subject have exploded; hardly a week goes by with out it being mentioned in the mainstream media. Ignorance of this topic is no longer possible, but denial is still high on many people’s agenda.

• The market reaction
• Climate change – the basics
• Insurance Costs
• Policy responses to climate change
• Corporate responses to climate change
• Carbon Footprinting
• Carbon Footprint Ranking
• Carbon Disclosure Project

Insurance Costs

As long ago as 2004, the world’s second largest re-insurer, Swiss Re, demonstrated its concern about the financial costs of climate change – specifically, that the costs of natural disasters aggravated by global warming were becoming too much to bear.

Swiss Re reported that the costs of such disasters could double to US$ 50bn each year over a 0- year period. With insurers having to take the brunt of this with $30-40bn in claims every year, insurance premiums will rise and the net rental income for investors will fall, in real terms. Munich Re, the world’s largest re-insurer, has charted the trend in the extent of world economic losses due to extreme weather events over the last few decades

Green Property : Does it Pay ?