Freedom or regulation - it’s a classic argument. On the one hand officials want to pursue mandated policy to drive progressive action. The other would rather let the free market police its own willing participants. But recent legislation in places like NY, DC or San Francisco seems to be promoting sustainability in a way that lessens the viability of green real estate being just what it should be – a sound business idea.

As early as 2009 with the Greener Greater Buildings Plan, the mandate to have owners benchmark the energy consumed on their properties. Now San Francisco and DC have joined rank, with other cities crafting similar programs of their own. What wasn’t discussed in this legislation was how class A office building owners and managers already take part in programs such as this. A comment from Vornado Realty Trust puts this in perspective: “we are already in compliance and have been benchmarking for several years.”

It happens in other areas of the real estate industry – regulation for LEED standards, sourcing from local products or waste management initiatives that undermine market achievements. These are all regulations that add to a property manager’s plate and keeps professionals in the building industry off task for better – and truly greener – practices. PMs could be a lot more productive without having to file the paperwork that counters the green ideas these laws are meant to promote.

It is clear that green building practices have become the mainstream, but they have done so at the market’s willingness to participate. Sadly it seems obvious that our representative government doesn’t believe we can increase the amount of LEED projects without a ‘professional push.’ All this while they remain erratic and unreliable to the incentive programs that business owners and real estate professionals would capitalize on – and continue to increase the red tape at a time when American development should be growing without these redundant restrictions.