Introducing the 2026 Green Lease Guide — a practical resource designed to help landlords and tenants leverage lease agreements to advance shared building performance and risk mitigation objectives

Developed through a partnership between RE Tech Advisors and the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), this updated guide empowers real estate managers to overcome the longstanding split incentive challenge by aligning financial and sustainability benefits for both parties.

As cities and states adopt new benchmarking laws and Building Performance Standards (BPS), the 2026 edition provides the clarity and ready-to-use lease language needed to reduce compliance risk, cut costs, and improve building performance.

RE Tech Advisors and IMT have collaborated for many years to advance green leasing across the market, including supporting the Green Lease Leaders program, launched by IMT with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings & Better Plants initiative. These efforts, alongside leadership from partners like BOMA, have helped make green leasing a core strategy for reducing compliance risk and boosting asset performance.

Check out the Green Leasing episode of RE Tech’s RE Think Podcast to hear from IMT’s Diana Lee, Director of Business Engagement and the leader of the Green Lease Leader Program, to understand the driver behind these updates, what building owners, managers, and tenants can expect, and how to implement changes to current leases in order to reach Green Lease Leader status. Brenna Walraven and Lauren Baldwin from RE Tech join Diana in this episode to share insights regarding green lease language.

Applications for this year’s Green Lease Leader recognition will close on April 10, 2026.

What is a green lease?

Green lease language aims to overcome the split-incentive barrier between landlords and tenants by allowing both to benefit from energy-efficiency investments. Green leases use specific language to align the financial and environmental benefits of sustainability with those of both landlords and tenants.

Green Lease Guide and Language Examples

Originally created by IMT in 2021, this updated version of the Green Lease Guide and Language Examples resource is freely available and provides lease examples and best practices for implementing green lease language into landlord-tenant leases as well as other relevant partner agreements.

What are the updates to the guide?

The new version of the guide has been updated to include language for how property owners and tenants may negotiate to address new regulatory compliance risks, including:

• Who is responsible for benchmarking submissions and other relevant reporting requirements, such as retrocommissioning, electrification, or audit requirements.
• What type of environmental metrics need to be shared (and how often) in order to meet benchmarking and building performance standard requirements
  
• How renewable energy credits (RECs) purchased for a building can be attributed in a way that aligns with GHG Protocol and avoids double counting

Review the full updated guide here: Green Lease Guide - 2026