Review of Social Benefits of Green and Sustainable Real Estate Properties

Abstract

At present, green real estate development and construction seems to focus largely on mitigating environmental impacts and generating economic and financial returns at both the building and market levels whereas the practice and standards of providing social benefits equally at individual, organizational, institutional and community levels appear to have received less attention. There has been a range of opinions that the cause of this may have been that real estate market participants and industry players are not fully aware or less certain of the social benefits accruable from green building. This paper reviews the social benefits of green and sustainable real estate properties. The study identifies minimization of strain on local infrastructure, reduction in absenteeism, boosts in creativity, higher morale and lower workforce turnover, users’ satisfaction and more control over the environment, setting example in the community and environment among others as the social benefits associated with green building. However, the review empowers the authors to hypothesize that the impact of corporate social responsibility is dependent on the real estate market participant’s knowledge of sustainability. The study will be useful to researchers, practitioners and policy makers in real estate development and market who are seeking clearer explanations on key factors that could attract investment in green building.

Keywords: Sustainability, green building benefits, corporate social responsibility, social indicators, real estate construction, and market participants.

DOI: 10.7176/JETP/9-6-04

Publication date: August 31^st 2019