Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/74664
with an open-mind," said John Mor- rison, the project's steering committee chairman and also president and CEO of Toronto-based Primaris Retail REIT. The end product will be an interactive software program that allows owners "We may think we are doing well, but if we are operating in a bubble, we really don't see the whole picture. A tool like this will allow us to look outside our portfolios." to measure themselves against industry averages and similar properties locally, regionally and nationally. The device is not for compliance or certification, or for competition among the participant shopping cen- ters, says Rudolph E. Milian, SCMD, SCSM, an ICSC senior staff vice pres- ident and the director of the organiza- tion's professional development ser- vices, who is also author of the book titled The Retail Green Agenda: Sustain- able Practices for Retailers and Shopping Centers. "Rather, it is more for under- standing your property's efficiency." Data will be compiled separately on energy and water use, waste disposal and recycling, and green cleaning and other green-management services, Milian says. The information will be presented in a way that protects the participants' anonymity and privacy. The steering committee comprises 28 green-building specialists, from small developer-owner firms, large re- tail REITs and anything in between. Seattle-based Paladino and Co., a sustainability and green-building con- 44 SCT / AUGUST 2012 sultant firm, is taking input from the committee and fine-tuning an ICSC request for proposal to find a software vendor. ICSC plans to choose a com- pany by late this fall, with beta test- ing set to begin by the first quarter of 2013, Milian says. The industry has discovered that sustainability dovetails with effective retail property management, according to Will Teichman, director of sustain- ability at Kimco Realty. "While stan- dards such as LEED focus on design, one thing we've constantly struggled with is identifying the correct mea- suring stick to judge how shopping center buildings perform," Teichman said. "Rather than just the high view, we will be able to gain some insights in order to effectively manage systems and subsystems on various parts of the property." Finding out how efficiently Kimco lights its parking lots at night as compared with the industry, for in- stance "is actionable to me, because it helps identify low performers and the kind of investment we will need to improve performance," he said. The scorecard is especially relevant given the industry's shift away from green- field development to improving and expanding existing properties, he says. Gauging energy efficiency in the retail real estate space has been a con- stant challenge because of the many and varied tenant and anchor spaces, common areas and pad sites, plus per- sistent questions about how a prop- erty should be metered and its energy bills divided, notes Jeff Bedell, vice president of sustainability at Macerich. "We're pleased that ICSC has picked up this torch and will support its mem- bers by filling a gap that's long existed in our industry," Bedell said. "Many of us have pushed for this for years." Mark Peternell, Regency Centers' vice president of sustainability, says he is confident that ICSC and the commit- tee can create a useful benchmark and scoring system, though he also thinks the challenge will be daunting and calls it "a valiant mission" that will re- quire superb execution. The axiom that one cannot man- age what one does not measure is most applicable in this effort, directly tied as it is to fiscal success, says George Caraghiaur, Simon Property Group's senior vice president of energy and procurement. While the standards of the likes of the U.S. Green Building Council and Energy Star do help, they can be hard to apply consistently for retail landlords that typically control only small portions of their centers. "The ICSC scorecard will be a better measuring stick, because you use every- body's information," Caraghiaur said. Simon Property says it has reduced its energy use by about 25 percent since 2003 without affecting guest comfort, and Caraghiaur expects that the intra-industry benchmarks will lead to additional savings. As impor- tant, he says, owners need to continue to set an example for tenants. "Land- lords have a big role in helping the ten- ant become more sustainable. So we have to look at ourselves and ask, are we sustainable to begin with?" The program will be unique to the shopping center industry worldwide, says Morrison. In Canada retail real estate has access to generic commer- cial real estate tools and guidelines for comparisons, but nothing as industry- specific as planned for the ICSC score- card. Once the North America score- card is created, ICSC would like to roll out the program in other countries, says Morrison. Teichman said: "We may think we are doing well as measured against ourselves, but if we are operating in a bubble, we really don't see the whole picture. A tool like this will allow us to look outside our portfolios and see how we perform against different landlords." SCT