For commercial property owners and occupiers, environmental performance is no longer a peripheral issue. It is now central to asset value, operational resilience, occupier satisfaction and long-term investment strategy. As expectations around energy efficiency, carbon reduction, water stewardship and waste management continue to rise, we spoke to Associate Surveyor Michelle Knowles, from our commercial property management team, about why benchmarking real-world performance has become essential.
The Real Estate Environmental Benchmark (REEB) is a valuable tool for the UK commercial property sector. Developed from annual utility consumption data submitted voluntarily by Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) members, it provides publicly available operational benchmarks for assets including offices, shopping centres, retail and leisure parks, and industrial parks. Its strength lies in its practical grounding: it reflects how buildings are actually performing in use, rather than relying solely on design assumptions or theoretical modelling.
Each annual REEB benchmark provides an important opportunity for landlords, managing agents and occupiers to gain a clearer understanding of how commercial properties are responding to the sector’s sustainability challenges. Each annual benchmark draws on a substantial dataset submitted by BBP Members, across office, industrial and retail assets, offering a broad view of industry-wide performance across energy, carbon, water, waste, renewables and electrification.
In our experience, one of the most useful aspects of REEB is that it helps place individual asset performance in context. A building’s energy or water consumption figure can be difficult to interpret in isolation. REEB enables owners and managers to compare performance against similar property types and understand whether an asset is broadly aligned with typical practice, ahead of the market, or in need of closer investigation.
That context is particularly important as the sector moves beyond headline commitments and into the practical delivery of lower-impact, better-performing buildings. The 2024 benchmarking report highlights that post-pandemic operating patterns continue to influence commercial property energy intensity, while also noting the growing importance of regulatory reporting and disclosure. In other words, understanding performance is not only good practice; it is becoming increasingly connected to compliance, investor scrutiny and occupier expectations.
We’ve found that REEB also helps to broaden the conversation beyond energy alone. The 2025 water insight shows that water use in commercial real estate can be significant, with the average office in the benchmark using about 2.3 million litres of water each year and the largest offices using around 100 million litres annually. For enclosed shopping centres, landlord-controlled common parts can use around 10 million litres a year. This reinforces the need for a more rounded approach to sustainability that considers energy, carbon, water, waste and operational behaviours together.
The real value of benchmarking is not simply in knowing where an asset sits today, but in using that insight to inform action. For many landlords and occupiers, the challenge is translating sector-level data into practical decisions at property level. That may include reviewing metering arrangements, improving data quality, identifying unusually high consumption, prioritising plant upgrades, assessing opportunities for electrification, or working with occupiers to reduce avoidable waste and water use.
This is where property management has a crucial role to play. Sustainable performance is often shaped by day-to-day operational decisions: how buildings are maintained, how services are managed, how data is captured, and how landlords and tenants communicate. Even relatively modest interventions can help improve efficiency, reduce cost pressures and support wider environmental objectives when they are informed by reliable data and delivered consistently.
Annual benchmarking exercises like REEB provide a valuable reference point for these conversations, helping asset owners ask better questions about building performance and identify where operational improvements may be possible.
At Fisher German, our commercial property management team works closely with clients and occupiers to help turn sustainability objectives into practical asset-level management. We understand that every property is different, and that meaningful improvement depends on combining market insight with a clear understanding of each building’s operational realities.
Our role includes helping clients review utility data, identify opportunities for improved monitoring, engage with tenants on shared sustainability priorities, and consider where operational changes or investment may deliver measurable benefits. For some assets, that may mean addressing data gaps or improving metering. For others, it may involve reviewing service charge expenditure, exploring efficiency measures, or supporting longer-term plans to enhance resilience and meet emerging environmental expectations.
Importantly, we also recognise the value of collaboration. Sustainable buildings are rarely achieved by landlords acting in isolation. Tenants influence how space is used, when services are required, how waste is managed and how energy and water are consumed. Open dialogue, informed by credible benchmarks such as REEB, can help create more productive conversations and more realistic improvement plans.
Benchmarking is only one part of the picture. For us, REEB provides an evidence base to assess progress, identify priorities and strengthen the evidence base for better decision-making. As the commercial property sector continues to adapt to sustainability, regulatory and occupier pressures, credible operational benchmarks will become even more important.
For clients and tenants alike, the opportunity is to use REEB not as a static comparison exercise, but as a catalyst for practical change. By understanding how assets perform today, identifying where improvement is possible, and working collaboratively to deliver those improvements, we can help create commercial properties that are more efficient, more resilient and better aligned with the expectations of the future.