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The Green Property Alliance has developed the first industry-wide standards for assessing the sustainability of buildings.

'Establishing the Ground Rules for Property' provides a single set of metrics for analysing energy and water use and waste generation alongside associated greenhouse gas emissions in commercial buildings.

The move is designed to give engineers, landlords, occupiers, investors and government a shared framework for determining the energy performance of new and existing buildings, providing comparable data which can then be used to guide public policy. 

The industry has previously suffered from an inconsistent approach to sustainability and energy performance. Research by the Green Property Alliance reveals there are over 100 different measures of sustainability in use in the UK.

All members of the Green Property Alliance have endorsed the guidelines. The group comprises a number of leading property bodies, including the British Council for Offices, British Council of Shopping Centres, British Retail Consortium, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the UK Green Building Council. 

Paul Edwards, chair of the British Council for Offices Environment and Sustainability Group and chair of the Green Property Alliance Working Group, said: 'Accurate, meaningful measurement of sustainability impacts is vital if its performance is to be effectively managed.  A vast array of sustainability tools and frameworks are available to the industry with subtle variation between each.  

'The publication of today's report will hopefully encourage convergence in the basic building blocks of the main frameworks the industry uses so that buildings can be compared no matter which framework they use.  We hope it will also provide some simple guidance to organisations who have yet to report, and that it will encourage them to do so.'

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