Greenprint Member Properties Reduce Overall Emissions and Consumption in 2017–2018

The Urban Land Institute's portfolio of Greenprint members have committed to reducing their carbon emissions by reducing energy usage. A 17% decrease across the portfolio since the project began a decade ago is a promising start. But how exactly is energy being saved? The Greenprint Performance Report broke down the improvements over the past year.

While still on track to meet its goal of a 50% reduction by 2030, the past year saw a marked slowdown in reduction, showing a year-over-year decrease of only 1.5%. In previous years, members achieved about 3% annual energy and emissions reductions. Water consumption, electricity use, and natural gas use only had marginal reductions resulting in a 0.1% energy use reduction across the 2,560 properties being tracked.

There’s no cause for alarm. Substantial reduction in the program’s early years still has the project on track despite the slow year. With new emission regulations targeting building owners in some of the biggest cities in the world, like New York City, reductions should be back on track next year. A trend toward more capital intensive improvements like installing building automation systems or replacing dated mechanical equipment will help the Greenprint portfolio reach its goal.

Read the full report: http://americas.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/ULI-Documents/Greenprint_PerformanceReport_VOL-10.pdf