SUSTAINABILITY · PROFILES
Corporate Office Properties Trust
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
Statue's ITT Building
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Corporate Office Properties Trust has taken on a strong leadership role in green building development. According to its annual report, COPT’s Green Building Program leads the industry in LEED certifications. Since 2003 the company’s policy has required all new buildings to meet at least a silver LEED standard.
Currently, COPT has 30 LEED certified projects, including three golds and three silvers. Additionally, eight COPT employees are LEED Accredited Professionals.
Roger Waesche, COO, says COPT has a designated goal in the next three years of having 30 percent of the company’s buildings LEED certified. “We believe that we are on the forefront of this movement,” he says. “A lot of people are still fighting it, but we’ve decided to embrace it as a company. We think that it will help us in retaining tenants, and it will help us in attracting tenants to our new buildings.”
COPT has 6 LEED-certified buildings as of
July 2008.
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COPT has won several awards honoring their efforts to create sustainable structures. They were awarded the National Association of Industrial Office Properties’ (NAIOP) National Green Development Award in 2005, the NAIOP Maryland Chapter Environmentally Friendly Green Development Award in 2006, and the U.S Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Baltimore Chapter Green Leadership Award in both 2005 and 2006.
While the awards are appreciated, COPT isn’t motivated by the accolades. “We believe, from an economic standpoint, we will get cost savings for the investments that we’re making,” Waesche says. “Additionally, our buildings will be highly valued by the investment community, and, as a result, our stock price will be given credit for the higher valuations of our buildings. We think that doing the right thing is also doing the smart thing.”
COPT also is making efforts to retrofit existing properties. The company uses a green housekeeping program so that cleaning materials are not harmful to the environment. COPT also offers reference materials for their tenants to help them understand how they can increase resources.
The REIT recognizes that any good sustainability plan is forward-thinking. By 2015 COPT plans for a majority of its buildings to be LEED-certified. The company believes that a well designed green building creates an environment that inspires success.
— Tara Anderson
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