The phrase “think global, act local,” is often referenced in the sustainability world. As countries around the world continue to combat global climate change, cities provide important opportunities for local action to further positive environmental impact. While national governments can regulate entire industries and invest in green technology development, cities can focus on more localized sources of greenhouse emissions, including transportation, buildings and developments. Companies like stok are leading the charge in realizing the full potential for environmental impact within the single defining characteristic of any city: the built environment.

stok is a vertically integrated real estate services firm passionate about driving environmental and social change. Part 1 of our blog series introduced you to this innovative company from their unique name to their comprehensive suite of services, but what about their impact? 

stok by the numbers

stok has reached 107 million square feet of impact, completed projects in nine countries, and has six clients who are among Forbes’ Top 15 Most Valuable Brands. Let’s dive deeper into their work, seen in city skylines around the world.  

stok is able to generate the most impact when they are involved in a project from the very beginning, allowing  time and space for its team of experts to integrate smart, sustainable strategies throughout the entire design, construction, and operation process. For example, through early collaboration with ownership and the design team, stok helped develop and guide the execution of the Electrical Training Institute (ETI) in Los Angeles. The ETI is the nation’s largest Net Zero Energy commercial building retrofit and went one step further to achieve Net Zero Plus, generating more energy than the building consumes annually. The building reduced its annual energy consumption from the electric grid from approximately 1 MW to zero, now utilizing an advanced renewable energy and a battery storage system.

While we won’t delve too far into the complicated number-crunching of engineering and building science, here are a few numbers about the project’s impact that everyone can understand:

• Reduced annual energy usage by 250,000 kWh
• Reduced lighting usage by 46%
• Reduced heating and cooling by approximately 60%
• Reduced annual CO2 emissions by 28.9 tons

Still just sound like a bunch of numbers? Well 28.9 tons of CO2 emissions is the equivalent to that of a cross-country road trip from San Francisco to New York—19 times! Clearly the ETI is creating solutions to climate change that are having an impact in real time, illustrating the future of smart energy efficiency—a move in the right, sustainable direction for cities.

How about an example further from home?

stok worked on the Obayashi Technical Research Institute (TRI) building in Tokyo, Japan, enhancing building performance to achieve these astounding impacts:

• 93% ENERGY STAR rating (more efficient than 93% of buildings worldwide!)
• 70% reduction in indoor water use through rainwater and well water treatment systems 
• 55% below CO2 emissions baseline for similar buildings
• 3rd highest LEED EBOM score in the world (at time of certification)

Don’t know what an EBOM score is? You might not be familiar with all nine different LEED rating systems, but LEED EBOM should be at the top of your list.

LEED EBOM stands for LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance. As stok says, this rating system is crucial for cities to develop sustainably—we can only build so many new properties, so we need to focus our efforts on redesigning current buildings to be more sustainable, something stok continues to do. 

stok is engaging with stakeholders in cities around the world to encourage sustainable impact and to create a better built environment, but a better built environment goes beyond sustainability alone...

In part 3 of our 4-part blog series we will share with you how stok works to create social impact with partners and within their own organization.