MORRIS, IL
ProLogis Park 80
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ProLogis, the world’s largest owner, manager and developer of distribution facilities, in 2007 became the first real estate company worldwide to join the Chicago Climate Exchange, which is the first global voluntary greenhouse gas emissions reduction and carbon credit trading program. Months later, ProLogis produced the first Sustainability Report by a U.S. real estate company in accordance with standards established by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a non-profit organization sponsored by the United Nations Environmental Programme.
 Leader in the Light
2006 Bronze Award Winner |
"Our interest in sustainable development began four or five years ago, and it really grew out of the knowledge we gained from our European operations," says Drew Torbin, sustainability manager for ProLogis. "The creation of a sustainability team was a conscious, top-down decision by our chairman and CEO to make an effort in this direction. Now our board of directors has formed a sustainability committee, too."
ProLogis has 3.5 million square feet in the U.S. under design or construction for which the company is pursuing LEED certification.
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Torbin says that while at face-value ProLogis is a real estate company, the staff sees its function as an "efficiency company."
"We take a pro-active, out-of-the-box approach to finding ways to use less energy and develop a smaller footprint," Torbin says.
As of January 2008, ProLogis has committed to register every newly designed development for LEED certification in the U.S. and BREEAM certification in the United Kingdom. Currently, ProLogis has 3.5 million square feet in the U.S. under design or construction for which the company is pursuing LEED certification.
"Sustainability is no longer an initiative we aretaking, it has become an integrated part of our business," Torbin says.
ProLogis joined the EnergyStar program, a partnership of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy that encourages the use of energy-efficient practices and programs. As an EnergyStar partner, ProLogis must assess its current energy consumption and operating and maintenance practices, and identify methods to improve energy performance throughout the entire company’s portfolio.
"LEED certification works at the time of construction: then we can benchmark how we are doing with the EnergyStar program," Torbin says.
ProLogis has installed solar panels on some of its European distribution facilities that generate electricity and is incorporated back into the local power grid. The company entered into the first U.S. roof lease in March 2008, leasing roof space of the Kaiser Distribution Park in Fontana, Calif. to Southern California Edison. The energy harnessed from the solar panels flows into the neighboring electrical grid.
"Rooftop solar panels provide power within a constrained area and so they work well in Southern California, where a program to use localized solar power is already in place," Torbin says "We have 41 million square feet of roof space just in the Southern California Edison territory, and we are eager to expand this into other areas. We have more than 500 million square feet of roof space across the world, so there is plenty of potential for more projects like this one."
ProLogis continues to make improvements to existing distribution centers and in May 2008 received LEED-CI (Commercial Interiors) Gold certification for the 800,000 square foot Kraft distribution center in Morris, Ill. outside Chicago.
— Michele Lerner
