Kilroy Realty Corp, whose Kilroy Centre Del Mar recently won a Pacific Southwest Region TOBY Award, just garnered another honor: Green Lease Leader, a new recognition program launched by the Institute for Market Transformation and the US Energy department’s Better Buildings Alliance. Kilroy VP of sustainability Sara Neff tells us green leases are a tool to save energy in commercial buildings by aligning the landlord and tenant's financial and environmental interests (such as cost-recovery provisions). You can buy a high-performance building, she notes, but if your leases prevent you from operating it sustainably, it's not a sustainable building. (Like filling up your Prius with leaded gas.)

While Kilroy's leases have long been "light green," Sara says the company added even more green language last summer when it went through a lease standardization process. (Now it's more of a kelly green or maybe an olive.) The tenants Kilroy works with have embraced sustainability. For example, the State of California only takes space in LEED buildings. Alternatively, the space needs to become LEED-certified prior to move-in or else the tenant pays 10% less in rent. At the 2375 Northside Dr building in Mission Valley, Kilroy achieved certification for the State's space during the tenant fit-out.