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5 Measures to Reduce the Carbon Footprint in your buildings

5 Measures to Reduce the Carbon Footprint in your buildings
By Kim Verdonck, Benoît Cruysmans
October 11, 2024

Reducing the Carbon Footprint in your buildings

We discuss the most important steps to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of your office buildings, retail or commercial properties.

Upgrade your Building's Envelope

Enhancing the envelope of your building is a critical step in reducing carbon emissions. This involves improving insulation, opting for triple glazing, and ensuring air tightness to prevent energy losses. Investing in energy-efficient measures, like adequate insulation, not only makes the building more sustainable, but also leads to significant energy and cost savings in the long-term.

Enhance Energy Performance of Technical Installations

Upgrading technical installations like heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, swapping to LED lighting, and using energy-efficient appliances can dramatically reduce your building's energy consumption. By taking these actions, you're not only reducing carbon footprint, but also enhancing the building’s operational efficiency.

By taking these measures, you will not only reduce your carbon footprint, but also improve the operational efficiency of the building

Implement a Building Monitoring System

This involves the use of meters and submeters to measure and manage the energy usage of the building. These tools provide data-driven insights that identify where energy is being wasted, enabling you to make informed decisions on what areas need improvement.

Switch to Decarbonized Energy Production

Transitioning to clean and renewable energy sources - such as heat pumps, geothermal energy, wind power, or solar energy - significantly reduces your carbon footprint. These energy sources produce less carbon emissions than traditional methods, contributing to a healthier, greener planet.

Cultivate a Sustainability-Driven Office Culture

Encourage practices like turning off lights when not in use, segregating waste, implementing a low print policy, and managing heating or cooling temperatures – even reducing them by a mere 1.5°C during the winter can have a huge impact. Promoting this culture not only reduces carbon emissions, but it also encourages employees to adopt sustainable practices in their everyday life.

These five impactful measures, when implemented correctly, can significantly reduce a building's carbon footprint, contributing to a healthier, more sustainable future. Sustainability in buildings is not merely a legal requirement but also a strategic investment that enhances commercialization. Green buildings tend to attract higher rent and have a better overall value due to the increasing awareness and demand for sustainable living, working and shopping.

Please visit the CBRE website for more information on our ESG services. ESG & Sustainability Consultancy

Kim Verdonck
written by

Kim Verdonck

Benoît Cruysmans
and

Benoît Cruysmans

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