Dive summary:

• CBRE Group, a giant in commercial real estate sales, leasing and management,  has chosen five research proposals that it believes will supply real-world data on how to innovated in sustainable construction and the costs and benefits of building green.
• CBRE calls the program the Real Green Research Challenge, and it had more than 100 applications for research projects that met its criteria.
• The winners, announced Wednesday, were:
  • 
    A Natural Resources Defense Council project to devise a rating system that will let tenants and owners compare tenants' energy use
  • A Stanford University program to quantify benefits of various parts of the Energy Star program to help building and property managers know what choices would give them the biggest return
  • A proposal by the EURO Institute of Real Estate Management to do an economic analysis of what green building means for large real estate portfolios
  • A Cleveland State University and Central Michigan University proposal for an industry-wide but regionally sensitive protocol for scoring green building activities
  • A proposal from Maastricht University to create a quarterly scoring system of green building in the top 30 U.S. commercial real estate markets

From the article:

“Growing market awareness of commercial buildings’ environmental impact is inspiring innovation in sustainability research,” said Bob Sulentic, CBRE’s President and CEO. ...