Writing a Green Lease (BOMA Guide)

For non-residential readers, a new lease guide with language specific to green building incentives was released by BOMA (Building Owners and Managers Association), an international organization of landlords and commercial property managers BOMA’s Lease Guide, including green lease language. Much like leases from an apartment association, BOMA leases are the boilerplate upon which many landlords rely. When language likes this makes the industry boilerplate, the concepts have gone mainstream.

I no longer do enough commercial leasing to justify the $70 for this guide, but I found it interesting that the guide specifically identifies the contradictory incentives inherent in most sustainable efforts. Per BOMA:

“The BOMA Green Lease Guide offers an alternative to the typical triple net lease, where the landlord pays for capital improvements but the tenants, who pay the utility bills, reap the benefits of energy savings. The language included in this document gives owners the right as standard procedure to pass through to tenants any capital costs that result in lower total operating costs. The new green language ensures that maintaining, managing, reporting, commissioning and re-commissioning the building to conform to a green certification or rating program is included in the pass through costs.”

(Via FacilitiesNet.com.)