CBRE Group, Inc. (CBRE) announced today that 3.5 million tenants in more than 62 million square metres (665 million square feet) of commercial property it manages for clients participated in WWF’s Earth Hour 2013 globally.
Considered the largest environmental event in history, Earth Hour 2013 took place from 8:30-9:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 23, in a symbolic and unified call for action to reduce the impact of climate change.
Hundreds of millions of people located in more than 150 countries switched off non-essential lights for one hour, including CBRE managed properties in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific. CBRE has supported Earth Hour since its 2007 inception.
“As the world’s largest manager of commercial space and with more than 37,000 employees globally, CBRE is uniquely positioned to support Earth Hour in its effort to drive sustainable behaviour,” said Mike Strong, Executive Chairman – EMEA at CBRE. “Our involvement in Earth Hour reinforces our environmental sustainability commitment and demonstrates that our clients, employees and tenants in our managed properties stand united with people across the globe in climate change concern.”
CBRE offers a wide range of sustainability initiatives under its Environmental Sustainability programme, which includes global commitments in 11 key areas of environmentally sound performance, including resource management, occupancy, communications and training, public policy and procurement. The programme provides best practices and initiatives that strengthen CBRE’s own environmental commitment, reflect the best environmental practices in our clients’ properties, and provide ongoing training and development to CBRE professionals. In 2012, CBRE launched the Real Green Research Challenge; a $1 million sustainability research fund that will announce successful partners next month.
In EMEA, CBRE’s Energy and Sustainability practice works with clients to achieve sizable sustainability goals; including through sustainability rating systems for the built environment – particularly LEED® and BREEAM. Across EMEA CBRE has already helped certify more than 250 buildings, and has more than 60 million sq m of client properties are engaged in a wide range of sustainability services worldwide.