Twenty property chiefs from across the world led by the British Property Federation (BPF) have called for a global green index to measure sustainabiity and the pooling of green research.
Speaking at the BPF's first ever international sustainability session in Cannes on Wednesday, BPF chief executive Liz Peace said there was a clear need for an international sustainability strategy.
She said having an agreed method of measuring and comparing sustainability across the globe would allow for a more coherent strategy and greater sharing of information.
Measures such as using social networking sites such as Facebook were suggested as a means of sharing information:
Peter Verwer, chief executive of the Property Council of Australia, said the issue of sustainability was becoming increasingly politicised and said: 'There has to be an agreed and common language and ways to measure sustainability or else it is impossible to gauge how the global industry is faring and who are the best performers.'
Ian Marcus, president of the British Property Federation and European managing director of Real Estate at Credit Suisse, said investment yields could be improved by a quarter to a half percent when buying more sustainable assets and many companies were willing to deploy funds to these investments.
'However we have to know what is sustainable or we will all be at sixes and sevens,' said Marcus.
The initiatives suggested follow a BPF-led private meeting that took place yesterday with industry counterparts from Japan, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Australia to discuss sustainability.
.Representatives from the RICS, the Investment Property Forum and the Urban Land Institute were also present.