Clearly, regulation has an important role to play in improving the energy efficiency of warehouse buildings, but increasingly developers and owner-occupiers of industrial buildings are also coming to understand the commercial benefits that sustainability can bring. These include lower operational costs, insurance against more onerous regulations and increased energy prices in the future, and the ability to attract good tenants.
The last of these is key for today's green warehouse pioneers. Sustainable warehouse construction is an established trend in all developed countries, and major warehouse developers have committed to green building certification. For instance, ProLogis announced as far back as 2008 that it would register each building with the USGBC to be considered for LEED certification, the U.S. national standard for environmentally responsible construction.
The reason to adopt such a policy is that certified buildings provide multinational tenants with distribution-facility options that further their own sustainability agendas. International retailers and logistic companies operating under corporate sustainable purchasing policies expect to work out of the same type of facilities in emerging markets.
In Russia, certification holds further importance as an indicator of building quality on the local market, where there is no clear definition of Class A warehouse facilities.