A successful real estate firm recently asked us a profoundly important question: ‘What should an organization like ours actually do on sustainability? We have long time-lines for all our properties, and we believe sustainability issues will be crucial for the real estate sector in the near future, but currently we don’t see much demand for truly sustainable buildings?’ We worked together on a 6-month task force to jointly think through that question, assessing tenant requirements and trends, investor preferences and how they are changing, new building technology development, and regulatory trends. We uncovered ways to, in an economically attractive way, go way beyond the traditional focus on energy efficiency, and to also include building materials, and the health and productivity of the people living and working in the buildings. Our client is now embarking on a journey to transform their segments of real estate into something quite different. Stay tuned.