CB RICHARD ELLIS ACHIEVES CARBON NEUTRALITY GOAL

CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (CBRE) announced today that it has achieved carbon neutrality for its 2010 global operations. CB Richard Ellis is the first global commercial real estate services firm to achieve carbon neutrality.

The company achieved neutrality by implementing carbon mitigation programs, such as green leasing standards and sustainable operation protocols, and then offsetting the remainder by investing in carbon mitigation projects, such as conservation-based forest initiatives, landfill methane destruction and sustainability projects in emerging economies. For 2010, the company offset more than 50,000 metric tons of emissions.

Sustainability has become fundamental to our client service offering,” said Brett White, chief executive officer of CB Richard Ellis.  “As the world’s largest third-party manager of commercial property, with a 2.9 billion square foot global portfolio, we can have an outsized impact on the environment by helping our clients lower energy consumption, improve efficiency and reduce emissions.”

CB Richard Ellis measures its carbon footprint annually using the internationally accepted standard known as the World Resources Institute’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The 2010 carbon measurement included all global emissions from sources controlled or owned by CB Richard Ellis, including its global fleet of vehicles, and direct electricity consumption.

In line with internationally accepted carbon market and government standards, CB Richard Ellis has purchased carbon offsets from socially responsible projects around the globe. These projects were purchased through either JP Morgan Climate Care or 3Degrees. Projects include:

–      a conservation-based forest management project that increases sequestration and storage of carbon in a native redwood forest in Mendocino County, California, in the U.S.

–      methane capture and destruction projects in the U.S.

–      the replacement of traditional wood and coal burning stoves in developing Cambodian and Ugandan communities with higher efficiency stoves, which minimizes mining and deforestation in those areas

–      technology that allows a fertilizer production facility run by co-op farmers near Uttar Pradesh, India to replace naphtha (a toxic petroleum by product) with natural gas

–      a biomass project in near Novodvinsk, Russia that converts the wood waste generated by a local paper mill to energy that supplies heat to neighbouring communities