Honest Buildings Expands Commercial Real Estate Platform Into the UK

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Honest Buildings, the rapidly growing real estate network that connects decision makers to solutions providers for millions of commercial real estate buildings, announced today its first international expansion into the UK. (http://www.honestbuildings.com/uk)

“We are delighted to partner with Honest Buildings to display information on thousands of internationally recognised BREEAM-rated buildings”

Honest Buildings has unlocked information for over 14.1 million square meters (more than 9,500 commercial buildings) in the UK, with influential real estate firms, including Aviva Investors, British Land, and Henderson Global Investors, among many others, already using the platform.

“Whether you’re in London or Liverpool, are a billion-pound property owner or a small retail tenant, we’re thrilled to offer a new way to make real estate decisions faster and more efficiently than ever before,” said Nick Katz, Head of Market Development Europe for Honest Buildings. “The HB Network now has an online profile for nearly every UK property, making it easy to compare companies, projects and professionals and find the best solution for your real estate needs.”

As part of today’s launch, BRE Global has partnered with Honest Buildings to bring a new level of transparency to UK commercial real estate. For the first time on a web platform other than its own, BRE Global will display the environmental performance certifications of thousands of buildings that are certified under the BREEAM standard.

“We are delighted to partner with Honest Buildings to display information on thousands of internationally recognised BREEAM-rated buildings,” said Richard Hardy, Managing Director at BRE Global. “BREEAM is the most well established sustainable buildings standard, and the Honest Buildings partnership provides further recognition to the clients, developers and others to show major improvements in the sustainability performance of new and existing buildings.”

Building solutions providers, from larger engineering and design firms like ARUP and Buro Happold, to smaller carbon consultancy and energy efficiency firms like Carbon Saver UK and Carbon Clear, are joining the HB Network to showcase their portfolio of projects, increase awareness, and win new business.

"The Honest Buildings Network is such a useful resource and so handy to display our portfolio of work,” said Janet Beckett, MCIBSE, Managing Director of Carbon Saver UK. “There's the possibility to get discovered by all sorts of property decision makers, partners and others, as well as the unlimited upside of gaining new business from HB Match."

Honest Buildings launched in New York on March 22, 2012, and in less than one year has grown to a network of millions of buildings across the globe and tens of thousands of real estate companies and professionals. To help decision makers take advantage of the breadth and depth of the rapidly expanding network, the company recently introduced HB Match, a premium consultation service that helps real estate decision makers source, qualify and select building professionals for their next project.

"We were very impressed by the results!” said Mark Chadwick, CEO of Carbon Clear, which used HB Match to find an engineering firm for an energy efficient HVAC retrofit of a 10,000 square metre luxury hotel outside London. “The speed and efficiency with which HB delivered was very impressive, providing qualified contacts with virtually no effort on our side. We expect to use the platform for rolling out this pilot and expanding to the rest of the hotel portfolio."

For decision makers, HB Match executes a detailed evaluation of thousands of professionals based on their custom criteria, and quickly delivers a shortlist of candidates with the best track record. Decision makers at publicly traded companies to tenants of small offices have used HB Match to find architects, engineers, contractors, energy efficiency firms, interior designers, furniture providers, software solution providers and more.

In the US, Honest Buildings has also partnered with state governments to power their online platforms for building and energy efficiency initiatives. Honest Buildings powers an enterprise level platform for New York State’s Build Smart NY initiative, which aims for a 20% reduction in energy use for 224 million SF of government owned property by 2020.

The Honest Buildings UK office is located at the Open Data Institute in Shoreditch on the City Fringe. Founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, the ODI is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, company, and the collaboration will allow Honest Buildings the greatest access to vital data sets in the UK and beyond.