Elevating Real Estate: Building Certifications, Active Lifestyles, and a More Sustainable Future
September 12, 2023
Building certifications for the real estate sector are an increasingly important aspect to the creation of better buildings. These certifications evaluate many topics - from the reduction of embodied carbon in a new development, to transitioning to more energy efficient heating and cooling systems. The primary reason that these certifications exist is to directly and indirectly reduce our emissions and reliance on fossil fuels, and enable us all to live healthier, more active lifestyles. Having scoring systems and metrics in place creates healthy competition for the real estate industry to elevate the standards of better buildings in the future, while also delivering greater value and higher rents for owners, landlords, and investors. Some certifications focus more on planetary health, such as LEED and Living Building Challenge, while others focus more on human health, such as WELL and Fitwel, and many can be complementary to each other.
One emerging trend in the real estate industry that I'm excited about are topics that focus on improving both planetary health and human health - from the creation of more public, green space to amenities that encourage and incentivize health and well-being - such as better bicycle facilities and active travel design.
A more recent certification that fits this category is ActiveScore, which prioritizes the expansion of active travel in the built environment - more widely known to Americans as “active transportation” or “active mobility,” ActiveScore assesses a building’s active travel offerings and provides a certification that can be used as a benchmark for a great facility. This certification can be further promoted to prospective and existing tenants and investors. ActiveScore is now aligning with the leading building certifications in the market and advocating for more marks to be awarded towards active travel, because of its dual role in supporting planetary and human health. Indirect, Scope 3 emissions, a previously overlooked part of real estate carbon reduction strategy, has become one more reason why upgrading an active travel facility and its related amenities and services can have an outsized impact - especially for existing buildings to be more competitive.
Beyond building certifications, there are other scoring systems that have an impact on our planetary and human health that are worth noting, such as WalkScore and BikeScore. They do not rate the facilities and services on a property, but rather are focused on the location of the building, its walkability, bike friendliness, and the on-street infrastructure that is nearby. These tools are very helpful when evaluating whether or not a location is accessible for pedestrians, cyclists, and anyone looking to be active in their commute. Their methodology is research-backed and their algorithm has been purchased by Redfin, one of the world's largest real estate platforms for buyers and sellers. A higher WalkScore or BikeScore in general translates to a higher value per square foot for building owners and landlords, and more density typically leads to a more efficient and sustainable use of land - enabling the opportunity for more active mobility options.
In contrast, ActiveScore focuses on the building itself and what a developer, owner, or landlord can control; most of the time, the on-street bicycle infrastructure outside of a building’s property is beyond the influence of real estate companies. If it’s a campus or large mixed-use parcel where bike lanes and paths are owned and maintained by the private property owner, then those can be factored into the rating. ActiveScore also considers soft measures that incentivize more active travel, such as social and community engagement within a company and building. On-street infrastructure that cities are reallocating to be more pedestrian and bicycle friendly are crucial and cities can also play a part in creating more stringent guidelines and requirements for developers, owners and landlords to provide better active travel facilities.
Developed by the same company as WalkScore and BikeScore, TransitScore is a related tool that specifically focuses on evaluating access to public transportation options. It considers the frequency, type of transit services available, and distance to the nearest stops. However, it may not account for the quality of the transit service, real-time data, or multimodal connections.
MobilityScore, delivered by ActionFigure, is another location-based rating system, which aggregates the various mobility options together into a score that helps the real estate industry and its tenants understand the value of a location. However, I'd view this as more of an accessibility and user experience type of rating as it seems to have considerable weight towards car parking, which I would score lower on the planetary and human health framework.
Overall, the location that developers select, and how the land is used is a very crucial aspect to encouraging healthy and active lifestyles, while also reducing a building's carbon footprint. As I wrote about in a post earlier this year, "On average, a person living in a denser, more urbanized area takes shorter car trips, bikes, walks, and takes transit more often...If we're going to make a dent in reducing our carbon emissions, state and city policymakers should look at ways to incentivize developers to build more housing in neighborhoods where people don’t need cars to get around...reducing the amount of space for car parking and prioritizing space for active travel facilities is an easy way to save money while building affordable housing.”
Much of what these location-based rating systems evaluate is out of the control of building owners and landlords. There is however, a lot of discretion that can be made in what is designed, built, and managed in their buildings and on their properties.
Ultimately, it's important to achieve multiple certifications and promote multiple rating systems, creating benchmarks for better and more sustainable buildings that incentivize active and healthy lifestyles. Working with an expert who has a comprehensive understanding of active travel accessibility in the real estate industry and public policy trends is crucial in this rapidly evolving topic.
P.S. If you would like to learn more about how each building certification evaluates active travel, there is a comprehensive analysis that has been performed by the ActiveScore team that I would be happy to share with you!
