The BOMA Every Building Conference and Expo in Orlando was crawling with folks from the Chicago CRE scene, and we couldn't be more proud (we were on the ground there this week as BOMA's national media partner). Industrial real estate has been the last to delve into sustainability, since it can be really tricky to get tenants on board. (You need to convince them that Earth and machine are not enemies.) And yet, industrial buildings can truly shine green, says Newmark Grubb Knight Frank executive managing director Geoff Kasselman (who leads the firm's national industrial practice). He says lighting is the low-hanging fruit in warehouses. It accounts for 30% of all energy use and more than 60% of total electricity use. (How much light do they really need? They're storing books, not reading them.)

Chicago also went home with two TOBY International Awards. We snapped BOMA/Chicago's Michael Cornicelli and CBRE's Teresa Amaro and Deb Gallet accepting the award for 250 South Wacker, which won for the 100k to 249,999 SF category. The building is nearly 60 years old, but no one would guess (it's like Meryl Streep), thanks to a $36M renovation from '06 to '08. (Also, MillerCoors takes up 68% of the building, so we imagine everyone's got beer goggles on.) Moving up a step, Rolling Meadows landmark Atrium Corporate Center won the 250k to 499,999 SF award. Two more Midwest winners: Missouri's Delmar Gardens was named best low-rise suburban office park, and Minneapolis' US Bancorp Center was dubbed best building from 500k to 1M SF.