Brandywine Realty Trust sees Recurring Benefits from Sustainability Initiatives

Brad Molotsky, executive vice president and general counsel with Brandywine Realty Trust (NYSE: BDN), joined REIT.com for a video interview during REITWise 2014: NAREIT’s Law, Accounting and Finance Conference held in Boca Raton, Fla.

Brandywine Realty has its headquarters in Radnor, Pa. The company owns, leases and manages urban, town center and suburban office properties.

Molotsky discussed the role sustainability can play in a firm’s efforts to maximize revenue.

He pointed to a situation in which Brandywine Realty spent about $27,500 on putting aerators on faucets. The move ended up saving 22 million gallons of water, or about $225,000 in avoided cost for the company. Molotsky described those kinds of savings as “a gift that keeps on giving.”Molotsky was also asked if he thinks companies such as Brandywine, those that emphasize sustainability and energy efficiency, are helping to attract new investors to the REIT industry.

“As time goes on, institutional owners who do invest in our collective companies are starting to ask those questions: What are you doing? How are you reporting? What are your numbers looking like?”

Molotsky also highlighted the importance of the SASB (Sustainable Accounting Standards Board), a group formed to enhance sustainability reporting, with regard to attracting new investors.  He noted that the SASB  is “looking at a variety of industries and saying hey, we have all these sustainability metrics out there. We’d like to standardize this, so that everybody who’s looking at it can get something relevant to them that are not being reported differently.”