Jones Lang LaSalle Sustainability Report: Clients Energy Savings Jump 5.5%

Real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle saved 5.5 percent more energy in its managed portfolio in 2011, than in 2010, according to the company’s 2011 corporate sustainability report.

In 2010, the company saved its clients 912 million kWh in its US managed portfolio. In 2011, this figure increased to 963 million kWh. But the energy savings did not translate into monetary savings. In 2010, energy savings translated into $128 million of monetary savings for JLL clients. In 2011, this figure fell to $105 million. JLL says this occurred due to a cheaper energy prices in 2011 over the previous year, the report says.

The company manages 2.1 billion square feet of real estate for clients, and describes decreasing clients’ energy use as “the greatest contribution” it can make to mitigate climate change.

JLL developed a measurement and verification process that included baselining and energy model calibration for the Empire State Building in conjunction with Johnson Controls, the contractor in charge of the building’s recent retrofit. The retrofit saved the iconic building $2.4 million in its first year exceeding efficiency guarantees by 5 percent. The project should reduce the building’s energy use by more than 38 percent and save $4.4 million in costs annually once all tenant spaces are upgraded.

JLL has also helped clients avert an estimated 1.22 million metric tons of CO₂e per year since 2007, resulting from the use of installed or operational renewable energy sources. This is up from an estimated 0.74 million metric tons averted per year by 2010. (See graph below) A further 4.01 million metric tons of CO2e per year could be averted (a decrease from 5.30 million in 2010), assuming all remaining wind, solar and biomass projects that JLL has advised on achieve planning consent or successful development, the report says.

The shift in figures from those reported in 2010 results from: increased involvement in utility scale projects related to solar; the “natural churn of development activity” – for example, wind capacity decreased because of some projects not progressing beyond feasibility stage; and, of greatest significance, the cancellation of a 200 MW biomass project by a client, the report says.

In 2011, JLL set up a specialist Renewable Energy Capital group was established to help raise development capital, identify investment opportunities and provide commercial and financial advice to clients across every major renewable technology project type, the report says.

Nokia tapped JLL’s services to situate four fuel cells generating a combined 800 kW for one of its research and development centers. JLL’s Project and Development Services and Energy and Sustainability Services teams decided to place the cells on a second floor roof area – an area typically not considered, according to the report. Some 400kW of the project went online in 2011.

The global carbon footprint of Jones Lang LaSalle’s own operations was approximately 49,000 metric tons CO2e in 2011, compared to 43,800 and 37,500 metric tons CO2e in 2010 and 2009 respectively. This translates to just under a 12 percent increase from 2010 to 2011. The company says its business growth has out paced the year-on-year carbon increase as its revenue increased 23 percent over the same time period. JLL also achieved a 17 percent reduction in emissions per corporate office employee from 2010 to 2011.

The increase in absolute greenhouse emissions in 2011 was driven primarily by business travel and company-owned vehicles, the report says. Business travel, which represented 26 percent of JLL’s known greenhouse gas emissions in 2011, was the largest contributor to this increase. The company attributes this primarily to greater efforts to capture business travel emissions.