“Hines is one of the most sustainable real estate companies in the world.” I won’t argue with that. Hines has been practicing green building for decades. Founder Gerald Hines was a Mechanical Engineer before he became a developer and the company believes in installing state of the art HVAC systems and then meticulously maintaining them.
I also believe that Hines is one of the primary reasons for Houston’s green sucesses. Based here, they early-on embraced the LEED rating system and showed its effectiveness in lowering operating costs and increasing a property’s value and tenant appeal.
And now Hines is continuing its commitment with ongoing certification of it’s existing buildings. Most recently are One, Three, Four, Five and Six Greenspoint Plaza certified to LEED-EB Gold and Two Greenspoint Plaza certified to LEED-EB Silver, a total of 2.1 million square feet of buildings added to the area’s LEED rolls. Hines now owns 60% of the LEED-EB Certified properties in Houston. Now if we could just get Hines to start buying healthcare properties…
Hines Press Release: http://www.hines.com/press/releases/8-18-10.aspx