2026 Green Lease Leaders Trends
Date Published:
May 21, 2026
We announced our 2026 Green Lease Leaders! These 55 companies are showing the industry what it means to have industry-best leasing practices. Here is what we can learn from this year’s leaders.
Energy Data Tracking is The Bare Minimum
All GLL winners fulfilled the energy tracking credit (Credit 1). This is in line with the historical trends for program winners. The energy tracking credit is the most used credit across Landlord, Tenant, and Team applications. For Landlords and Tenants, water tracking (Credit 2) is close behind, with 95% and 85.7% of this year’s Landlord and Tenant winners fulfilling this credit.
Continued Commitment
Two-thirds of this year’s winners were reapplying for Green Lease Leaders recognition. Out of these returning winners, about 20% increased their recognition level from Silver to Gold. This is part of a sustained trend of companies enhancing their leasing practices. Over the 12 year history of the Green Lease Leaders program, about a quarter of winners have enhanced their recognition level over time. For example, this year Brookfield Properties Logistics enhanced their recognition from Silver to Gold.
“This recognition is valuable to Brookfield Properties as it reinforces our commitment to aligning sustainability with how we lease, operate and invest in our portfolio. Logistics buildings are heavily influenced by tenant operations so effective green leasing is essential to improving overall performance. This recognition provides an external benchmark that helps validate the work we are already doing to integrate energy efficiency, data transparency, and renewable energy into our leasing practices. It also supports greater consistency across our portfolio by reinforcing the importance of standard lease language, tenant engagement, and internal training. Green Lease Leaders recognition helps demonstrate to tenants, investors, and partners that we are taking a practical and collaborative approach to sustainability. It strengthens our ability to communicate the value of our buildings and supports ongoing conversations with tenants around efficiency, cost savings, and long-term performance. Above all else, this recognition helps drive continuous improvement. It encourages us to refine our leasing framework, expand data transparency, and identify new opportunities that can further align landlord and tenant objectives.”
Brookfield Properties
Innovation
This year, Green Lease Leaders launched new innovation credits: Landlord Credit 16 and Tenant Credit 12. We created these credits to recognize how leaders are finding new ways to use their leases to reduce risk and support building performance.
With building performance standards (BPS) as a new reality, two commercial landlord Green Lease Leaders successfully incorporated language about passing penalties as a result of non-compliance with BPS to Tenants. Both landlords also included language on how the proportionate share of such penalty would be calculated. This further demonstrates the use of the lease as a critical tool for compliance.
“Earning Green Lease Leaders recognition is valuable because it validates our commitment to sustainability in a credible and measurable way. It shows that we are embedding environmental goals into our leasing practices and improving building performance at scale. This recognition strengthens relationships with tenants by aligning interests around efficiency, cost savings, and reduced environmental impact. It also differentiates our portfolio, signaling to investors and partners that we are proactively managing climate risks and opportunities. Internally, it drives consistency, accountability, and continuous improvement across our assets. Ultimately, it reflects our long-term strategy to create more resilient, efficient, and future-ready real estate.”
DRA Advisors
What Our 2026 Winners Are Saying
Green Lease Leaders recognition matters to Agree because it reinforces that our green lease work is translating into better day‑to‑day outcomes—not just language in a lease. The green lease clauses give us a clearer pathway to request and receive utility information, which helps us have more informed, practical conversations with tenants about energy use, benchmarking, and sustainability priorities. It also gives both sides a common framework to collaborate on initiatives over the life of the lease, which ultimately supports stronger, longer-term relationships with our tenants.
Agree Realty
As a net lease REIT, our efforts to advance sustainability across our tenant-operated portfolio benefit from a shared commitment and mutual cooperation towards improving environmental performance. Green Lease Leaders recognition reflects our effort to meet an independent standard for how that can be done in our leases, and reinforces our broader commitment to driving environmental performance in partnership with our tenants over the long term.
VICI Properties
Earning Green Lease Leaders recognition is highly valuable to Weaver because it publicly validates our deep commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable operations…The designation strengthens our reputation as an ethical corporate citizen and ESG leader. It builds trust with clients, talent, investors, and partners who seek organizations that walk the talk on sustainability. It also reinforces the work of our Sustainability Steering Committee, which oversees lease strategy and integrates these principles into our broader business decisions and annual ESG reporting under GRI, SASB, and TCFD frameworks.
Most importantly, this honor motivates us to do even more. It encourages us to deepen landlord collaborations, pursue performance-based lease incentives, and continue influencing the commercial real estate market toward greener standards. We are proud to be recognized and excited to share our story as we work together with landlords to create a more sustainable built environment.
Weaver and Tidwell, L.L.P.
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