Climate Action Offsetter: CBRE

December 5, 2011

written by CBRE

Commercial real estate is responsible for approximately 18 percent of U.S. GHG emissions. As the world’s largest commercial real estate services company, CBRE has as much an opportunity as it does an obligation to seek meaningful ways to reduce the environmental footprint of both our company and our industry. Our corporate carbon neutrality commitment, under which we strive to both reduce our emissions and mitigate those that are unavoidable, is one way we go about meeting our environmental goals and responsibilities.

In 2010, CBRE became our industry’s first carbon neutral company and the second ever to earn certification of carbon neutrality under the Australian Government’s National Carbon Offset Standard. To earn these distinctions, CBRE implemented rigorous carbon mitigation programs, including green leasing standards and sustainable operation protocols, and retired high quality carbon offset after a process of audits, part of which included diligent selection of carbon offset projects and standards.

The Climate Action Reserve provides some of the highest quality carbon offsets projects in the world. The Reserve is credible and also provides a selection of project types that CBRE was excited to support. The Reserve’s domestic focus also gave us a means to make investments in local projects and economies, and participate in the system that will underpin the meaningful work of AB 32 in setting up California’s cap and trade system.

CBRE purchased and retired offsets from several socially responsible projects in communities we serve, including the Davis Landfill Gas Offset Project, a methane capture and destruction project in Layton, Ohio; Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill in Minnehaha County, South Dakota; and the Denton Landfill Gas Destruction Project in Denton, Texas. Reducing emissions from landfills is an important objective of our company, and we have innovative policies to reduce and recycle construction waste to further support the greening of landfills. And as a commercial real estate services firm that supports the use of green building materials, we also support forest preservation efforts. We are proud to include the Garcia River Forest, a conservation-based forest management project that increases sequestration and storage of carbon in Mendocino County, California, in our portfolio of offsets to achieve carbon neutrality.

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