There's little argument among developers that environmental sustainability is becoming one of the most pressing public policy issues facing the commercial real estate industry today.

We are entering an era of more stringent standards, one in which builders will be required to account for carbon emissions and other environmental impacts of their projects in a truly holistic manner.

Customers also are driving the sustainability movement further in commercial real estate. Executives concerned about corporate social responsibility are demanding that their business facilities incorporate the latest in sustainable features.

Current techniques and technologies, such as using recycled construction materials and installing energy efficient lighting systems, are both meaningful and practical. They afford real benefits to the environment without imposing an outsized economic burden on developers. Over the long-term, however, these measures do not go far enough to counteract global warming. Soon enough, regulators and customers will raise the bar, pushing for higher environmental performance from their facilities.

For example, ProLogis, Inc. (NYSE: PLD) has embarked on multiple initiatives that we hope will make meaningful contributions in this regard. One of which is ProLogis' Park Sideway, a 64-acre industrial park in the midlands region of the United Kingdom. The park will serve as a "test bed" for state-of-the-art environmental technologies, and results will be verified by an independent engineering firm. The park is at the site of a former coal mine that also served as an unlicensed tire dump for years. Following a government-sponsored cleanup of the site, ProLogis will construct more than 600,000 square feet of space designated for both industrial distribution and use by small- and medium-sized businesses.

We also will develop a comprehensive transit plan that includes convenient links to mass transportation, cycle paths and pedestrian walkways, as well as a free electric shuttle to key nearby locations and an Internet-based car pooling program. Landscaping onsite will be designed to offset the development's carbon dioxide emissions, and irrigation systems will rely on both gray water and recycled rainwater.

That is only one example of the global sustainable movement. In the end, of course, no development truly can be called sustainable unless it remains economically viable and continues to deliver a strong return to investors. That idea is sometimes lost in the debates and discussions that take place about sustainability today. Another aspect of sustainability that is often forgotten is corporate social responsibility.