jim mcclelland
Why Hotels Are Getting on Board With Sustainable Development
JLL Real Views | June 8, 2017
By Jim McClelland For a sizeable number of today's one billion tourists, the prospect of pristine mountain slopes, sun-drenched beaches and nature at its best is worth traveling long distances for. Yet for all the good they do for local economies, a steady stream of tourists can also have a significant environmental impact as infrastructure springs up to accommodate their needs while increased water consumption and waste generation put pressure on local resources. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) estimates hospitality's annual footprint to total around $4 billion in energy use, 1.2 trillion gallons of water and millions of ton...
A New Climate for Sustainable Investment
Jll Real Views | January 3, 2017
By Jim McClelland Not so long ago, sustainable investment was the preserve of an eco-conscious minority. Now attitudes are changing amid mounting evidence that it's not a choice between profit and planet. Whether it was reports in the Financial Times of green funds outperforming 'black' ones, or Morgan Stanley busting the myth that Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) necessarily costs more, markets were on the move. After the COP21 Climate Change summit held in Paris in December 2015 where, for the first time, 195 developed and developing countries agreed a climate deal, sustainable investment has gained even greater momentum, leading...
Clean and Green: The New Energy of Choice
JLL Real Views | November 16, 2016
by Jim McClelland Hardly a week goes by without news of another record being broken for renewable energy generation. Take the REN21 global status report showing the largest-ever annual increase in power capacity for 2015; or the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announcing electricity up year-on-year for every single month in 2016. Portugal even ran on nothing but renewables for four days back in May. Furthermore, despite clean energy investment in 2016 lagging behind last year's runaway success, recent International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) analysis still forecasts an ongoing upward curve, particularly for solar photovo...
How Cutting Edge Science is Bringing Buildings to Life
JLL Real Views | May 12, 2016
By Jim McClelland Most of us think of modern buildings as inert structures – the shell for all the activity that goes on inside. Advances in science and technology, however, are creating new types of biological and metabolic materials which are essentially turning a growing number of buildings into living, breathing organisms. In general, the state-of-play in active solutions is evolving rapidly, with both product innovation and market acceptance on the rise. As Rachel Armstrong , Professor of Experimental Architecture at Newcastle University, explains: "Functional materials – such as smog-eating surfaces, carbon-fixing pain...
Hotels Check in to Greener Thinking
JLL Real Views | April 12, 2016
by Jim McClelland Enter a hotel room anywhere in the world and the chances are you'll find a polite-but-prescriptive card by the bed or bath, advising of the benefits of 'eco-friendly' behaviors such as living with linen longer and reusing towels. Commendable as it may be, however, this consumer-facing front really represents only the tip of the iceberg for environmental impacts in the hospitality industry where fast-growing equates to resource-hungry. The latest Lodging Industry Trends report describes the pace of hotel development as robust, with total property numbers in the U.S. alone hitting 53,432, and the room count hitting nearl...
