Greening warehouses through energy efficiency and environmental impact reduction: a conceptual framework based on a systematic literature review

1. Introduction

Traditionally, logistics activities have been mostly focused on balancing efficiency, expressed in terms of cost reduction and effectiveness, measured through service level optimisation and improvement. Within the entire supply chain, warehouses have been acknowledged as key components (Rai et al., 2011), accounting for about 20% of logistics costs (Dhooma and Baker, 2012) and having a direct impact on the service level companies can provide to customers (Liu et al., 2010). However, in the last decade also the environmental sustainability of logistics facilities and warehousing operations has been called into question, bringing further complexity and increased challenges to the logistics industry.

Multiple factors are behind this trend. On the one hand, more demanding regulatory pressures and growing recommendations are coming from national governments, as well as international organisations. This is strictly related to the growing concerns over the limitation of resources, global warming and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If we look at logistics and transport activities, according to the World Economic Forum (2016), they account for 13% of the overall GHG emissions worldwide, out of which 11% is related to logistics sites. Besides, increasing pressures from a variety of stakeholders, such as investors, consumers, media and the entire society, are making sustainability one of the key drivers in logistics decision-making processes (Dobers et al., 2019; Perotti et al., 2022). This is also the case of logistics sites, whose sustainability is strictly related to the efficiency of resources and materials employed. Whilst the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standard 14,083 released in March 2023 now provides managers with a globally aligned framework for quantifying GHG emissions of transport and hub operations, companies so far have had to rely on various standards aiming at certifying their environmental performance and had to struggle with a rising range of measures to be embraced at their logistics facilities to improve their energy efficiency (i.e. consumption reduction and related costs) and decrease related emissions.

As such, both logistics managers and technology providers have started looking for innovative energy-efficiency measures and solutions towards environmental impact reduction to be applied to their warehousing facilities to enhance not only the economic but also their environmental performance (Wehner et al., 2020). Growing investments have recently characterised the logistics real estate industry, with particular reference to green building projects and installation of utilities – such as photovoltaic panels on the rooftop – that could reduce energy consumption whilst mitigating the environmental performance of the building (Perotti et al., 2023). Moreover, digital technologies and energy-efficient systems have been progressively widespread, such as LED lighting and light sensors, lithium-ion batteries for material handling equipment and fast chargers (Rai et al., 2011; Rajput and Singh, 2020). Greener operational practices, as well as packaging consumption monitoring and waste reduction, have also increased and several related solutions have become common (Das et al., 2023).

From an academic perspective, the literature dealing with sustainability at logistics sites has recently boosted (Ries et al., 2017; Agyabeng-Mensah et al., 2020). Indeed, the focus of logistics scientific literature over the last decade has primarily been on analysing and mitigating the impact of transport activities and related green strategies, leaving environmental sustainability in warehousing largely overlooked (Tappia et al., 2015). However, a shift in this trend seems to be emerging and sustainable warehousing is now starting to receive growing attention from both researchers and practitioners. Still, the academic literature on this topic appears to be still underdeveloped. Although papers that qualitatively describe green warehousing solutions have started to appear, no clear view has been presented so far on how to behave to achieve higher energy-efficiency and a lower environmental impact at logistics sites, nor the impacts related to the individual measures available. Also, motivations and barriers of such solutions haven't deserved enough attention so far. However, as highlighted by Sukjit and Vanichchinchai (2020), “adoption of green warehousing requires motivations. However, motivations for green warehouse still receive little attention” (p. 539).

This paper aims to fill this gap. Based on a systematic literature review (SLR) approach (Tranfield et al., 2003), it offers a framework of energy-efficiency measures and solutions towards environmental impact reduction that can be implemented to improve environmental sustainability at logistics sites. The environmental and economic impacts of such measures are specifically investigated, as well as the main motivations and barriers that could influence their adoption. The study is also intended to pinpoint the major research gaps, thus paving the way for future directions of investigation in this field. According to the objectives of this paper, three research questions (RQs) have been introduced:

In order to address these questions and to present the discussion in a structured way, the Systematic Literature Review methodology has been applied, since it has been identified as an effective way to discuss gaps in the existing scientific literature (Tranfield et al., 2003) and to synthesize the results of previous literature in a systematic, reproducible and transparent way to support theory-building (Seuring et al., 2020; Snyder, 2019). The contribution offered by this study can be viewed as theory-building. As discussed by Seuring et al.(2020) and Kovács and Spens (2005), this approach to literature review follows a deductive-abductive approach and it will be applied in this study to allow a comprehensive analysis of green warehousing and the development of a framework of green strategies and energy-efficiency measures for improving the environmental sustainability at logistics sites, which is currently lacking in the existing warehousing literature. According to Choi and Wacker (2011), theory-building is a crucial aspect of research that facilitates the advancement of a field over time. Additionally, theory-building approaches have been found to enhance our understanding of a specific subject, aiding in redefining concepts that were previously not clearly or extensively explained in the literature (Wacker, 2008). Our research not only improves the theoretical understanding of green warehousing but also offers insights for professionals to improve the environmental sustainability of logistics sites. Thus, our study significantly contributes to the development of middle-range theory in the field of green warehousing. Middle-range theory serves as a vital link between academic research and practical applications to explain and comprehend phenomena within specific contexts (Swanson et al., 2020). In an emerging field such as green warehousing, a rising number of contributions related to energy-efficiency measures and solutions towards environmental impact reduction have appeared (Agyabeng-Mensah et al., 2020), but they are scattered. Therefore, it is particularly important to provide a comprehensive literature review to explore concepts and the relationships amongst them, to identify the key elements that facilitate a transition towards enhanced environmental sustainability at logistics sites from both a theoretical and practical perspective.

The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The literature background is presented in Section 2. Section 3 illustrates the methodology adopted, whilst Section 4 provides descriptive information about the papers examined during the SLR phase. A critical discussion of the proposed framework is then offered and the main research gaps are highlighted. Finally, the main conclusions are pointed out and future research directions are outlined.

2. Literature background

Green warehousing has been defined as “a managerial concept integrating and implementing environmentally friendly operations with the objective of minimizing energy consumption, energy cost and GHG emissions of warehouses” (Bartolini et al., 2019, p. 243). Specifically, GHG emissions and energy efficiency – which in turn involves consumption and related cost reduction – are seen as key elements when approaching the challenge of improving the environmental performance at a logistics facility (Dobers et al., 2022). Other broader definitions of sustainable warehousing have also been proposed, thus incorporating also the social perspective accordingly with the triple-bottom line (TBL) approach (Elkington, 2013). As an example, sustainable warehousing has been defined as an approach to maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of warehouse operations in such a way that the firm's economic objectives can be reached, without a negative impact on the surrounding environment and society (Malinowska et al., 2018; Ali and Phan, 2022). Similarly, according to Tan et al. (2009) and Ishizaka et al. (2022), sustainable warehousing is about integrating, balancing and managing the economic, environmental and social inputs and outputs of the warehouse operations.

Focusing on the environmental side of sustainability, contributions have recently begun to emerge on the topic of green warehousing, on either the assessment of warehouse-related energy consumption and emissions (Ries et al., 2017) or on the motivations and barriers influencing the adoption of green warehousing practices (Wahab et al., 2018). The academic community has also started to perceive the need for structuring extant knowledge and setting clear directions for future works. Accordingly, a first literature review addressing this topic has been found (Bartolini et al., 2019).

The authors provide a review and bibliometric analysis of the state of knowledge regarding green warehouse management, the environmental impact of warehouse buildings, sustainability indicators, environmental certification guidelines and energy-saving issues in warehousing. Although that review could be viewed as a valuable seminal work, no comprehensive framework was offered for categorising the strategies and energy-efficiency measures for reducing the environmental impact of warehouses, nor the related impacts, benefits and barriers. They offered a broad discussion on three macro-themes, namely green warehouse management, environmental impact of warehouse building and energy saving in warehousing. However, no detailed overview was offered on the plethora of practices and green strategies that can be implemented to improve environmental sustainability at logistics sites. Specifically, we highlighted a lack of a comprehensive classification of the energy-efficiency measures that can be practically leveraged by logistics managers to support their decision-making process when it comes to greening their logistics facilities. This opens promising streams for further conceptualisation, as the industry is currently looking for guidance on how to transition towards net-zero warehouses and related operations, what roadmap to embrace and which energy-efficient measures to define (Perotti et al., 2023). It should also be noted that, the interesting review by Bartolini et al. (2019) does not include some relevant literature published from 2020 onwards and this prevents the study from capturing the recent evolution of the topic. Finally, it should also be acknowledged that some researchers have also begun to address specific aspects of green warehousing. As an example, Füchtenhans et al. (2021) proposed a systematic literature review to analyse the state-of-knowledge of technologies and applications for smart lighting systems. Different technical systems were discussed (e.g. ranging from LED lighting to light sensors) together with their application areas, including but not restricted to warehousing. Nevertheless, that review focused on a specific subset of energy-efficiency measures referred to the lighting domain, without offering a holistic representation of warehousing environments. As a result, opportunities for new research efforts in this direction are still open and the need for an updated conceptual contribution based on a thorough academic literature review clearly emerges. As mentioned, the contribution offered by this study can be viewed as theory-building. Following the inductive approach discussed by Seuring et al. (2020), we contribute to theory-building by synthesizing and organising existing contributions to generate new insights and understanding about green warehousing. This is particularly important in emerging fields or areas of study where there is a lack of established theory, as it happens in the case of green warehousing. As explained in the methodology section, the inductive approach followed for this literature review starts with a broad overview of the literature to identify patterns and emerging themes. By synthesizing and organising existing contributions based on these patterns and themes, our literature review proposes a comprehensive framework of green strategies and energy-efficiency measures for green logistics, along with key elements (i.e. motivations, barriers, performance assessment and monitoring and impact) that can support the understanding of this topic and contribute to the advancement of knowledge and practice for improving the environmental sustainability at logistics sites.

3. Methodology

The framework was developed starting from the results of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Literature reviews aim at synthesizing research results, capturing trends in the scientific literature and detecting promising research directions for future investigation. Amongst the different methodologies, the SLR has been recognised as appropriate to achieve the objective of this study, because it is the most effective method to logically explore the state-of-the-art and advance the existing scientific knowledge around a topic (Tranfield et al., 2003). SLR can be defined as a process of “a systematic, explicit, and reproducible design for identifying, evaluating, and interpreting the existing body of completed and recorded work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners” (Fink, 2019, p. 6). It is, therefore, a valuable methodology for developing propositions and discussing future research implications (Carter and Rogers, 2008). Furthermore, this methodology has been increasingly recommended to identify, collect and classify related studies in a more structured, nuanced and reproducible way (Rhoades, 2011). All these elements acquire even more importance with reference to warehouse environmental sustainability, as it is a fairly new branch of research and the need for summarising the available studies and promoting replicable knowledge is fundamental to facilitate further investigation in this arena. As highlighted by Lagorio et al. (2016), the SLR method has already been widely used to consolidate emerging topics in other areas in the field of sustainability and supply chain management.

To reduce bias during research and ensure replicability, this study followed the guidelines set out by Denyer and Tranfield (2009). The SLR has been carried out following a five-step methodology, as illustrated in Figure 1, by adapting the steps proposed by Denyer and Tranfield (2009). These phases are described in detail in the following sub-sections.

4. Descriptive analysis

Each selected publication has been classified according to:

1. General characteristics: author(s), year of publication, source title and first author's affiliation.

2. Methodology adopted: as per Seuring and Müller (2008), five research methodology have been distinguished, namely “Conceptual framework”, “Analytical model”, “Case study”, “Literature review” and “Survey”.

3. Themes addressed: in performing the paper evaluation and analysis, we aimed at rationalising and systematising the existing contributions on the topic under investigation. The papers were classified through thematic analysis (Vaismoradi et al. (2013), according to a deductive-abductive approach (Seuring and Müller, 2008). The first step was to carefully read the papers. Consistently with the review questions, and according to a deductive approach, we particularly focused on the thematic categories defined in the previous pages, i.e. energy-efficiency measures and solutions towards environmental impact reduction for green warehousing, their economic and environmental impacts, the main motivations and barriers that influence their adoption. The specific elements for each of these categories were identified according to an abductive approach. For this qualitative data analysis, we followed the steps proposed by Gioia et al. (2013). Initially, we conducted the primary data coding, emphasising the key elements presented in the papers. During this phase, our aim was to faithfully adhere to the terminology used in the selected papers. As the evaluation process progressed, we looked for commonalities and patterns amongst the terms employed in the papers. These findings served as the foundation for organising the terms into categories and constructing a “data structure,” which forms the final framework for our study. Both authors actively participated in this process, engaging in discussions to address any discrepancies or differences in opinions. We iteratively analysed and interpreted the papers until reaching a consensus. In instances where there was disagreement in data coding, we revisited the data, engaged in mutual discussions and developed shared understandings to arrive at consensual interpretations. This research process employed abductive reasoning because we were not completely unaware of previous work whilst analysing papers; instead we had preconceived notions and theoretical knowledge about the field under investigation. In line with this approach, we intentionally chose to be ignorant of previous theories in the field of interest, rather than simply lacking awareness, to find the right balance between our existing knowledge and areas where we lacked knowledge (Gioia et al., 2013). This balance was crucial in facilitating discovery without unnecessarily reinventing established concepts (Kovács and Spens, 2005).

Table 2 summarises the content and features of each paper. According to Melacini et al. (2018) the papers are listed in chronological order to show the evolution of the topic over time.

The examined papers were published between 2008 and 2022 in 41 different international journals and 11 conference proceedings. The main focus is on industrial management or energy area. It is interesting to remark that very few journals are supply chain management- or logistics-based. Instead, many contributions have been found in energy-related journals, as well as conference proceedings, thus indicating that green warehousing is still an emerging topic that sector-specific journals have not adequately addressed.

Looking the distribution of the examined paper over time, a mounting interest in the topic of green warehousing has been detected, with 27 papers published from 2019 onwards (i.e. 45% of the examined sample). This further corroborates the need for systematising and conceptualising the available knowledge to guide future studies in the field.

As far as the first author's affiliations, 34 papers refer to European countries – e.g. Italy (12), Germany (4), UK (4), Turkey (4) – that overall constitute more than half of the sample (57%). Asia accounts for 18 contributions – being China (4) and Malaysia (3) with the highest number of contributions – and USA for 4. Regarding the method (Figure 2), the selected papers are based on empirical studies – either case studies/interviews (21) or surveys (7) – but also analytical models (20), conceptual contributions (5) and literature review (5) are quite common. Looking at the evolution of the topic over time, as per Melacini et al. (2018), strategies and energy-efficiency measures to improve warehouse environmental sustainability (RQ1) and related economic and environmental impacts (RQ2) have been found since 2008 and mostly from 2011 onwards. If earlier papers tend to be conceptual in nature or provide some initial case studies on green warehousing measures and related impact computation, recent contributions, i.e. from 2020 onwards, seem to have evolved to include a greater emphasis on practical solutions for reducing energy consumption (e.g. smart energy charging, material handling energy consumption optimisation). Motivations and barriers influencing companies' adoption (RQ3) seem to be a more recent area of investigation and contributions addressing these issues have been found mostly after 2015. It is interesting to note that early papers were conceptual in nature, whereas after 2019, all the examined papers are either case study/interview- or survey-based, with one analytical model being found. This highlights the rising interest in empirical research on the topic.

5. Results and framework development

A critical analysis of the selected papers is hereinafter presented by structuring the findings according to the three RQs previously defined.

Table 3 reports 23 warehouse energy-efficiency measures that have been identified and classified into six green strategies: Green Building, Utilities, Lighting, Material Handling and Automation, Materials and Operational Practices. The majority of studies focused on Green Building, Utilities and Lighting, with particular attention to energy-efficiency measures such as photovoltaic panels, thermal insulation, use of natural lighting and white walls, packaging reuse and recycling. It should be noted that other promising technologies that have started receiving growing attention from the industry, such as high-frequency battery charging and sensors for consumption reduction – within Material Handling strategies – or solar tubes – within Lighting – have not been found in the examined sample.

6. Discussion and research agenda

Although green warehousing has been traditionally under-examined compared to other green supply chain management issues (Bartolini et al., 2019), to date, institutional and social pressures have concurred to highlight the urgency of focusing on such a subject. Being a fairly new branch of research – whilst being one of the major areas that could reduce the environmental impact of business activities (Salhieh and Abushaikha, 2016) – the related literature is still scarce although increasing and deserves adequate attention. The objective of the paper is to build upon earlier seminal studies on the topic (Bartolini et al., 2019) and further address three key areas of investigation in order to: (1) create a clear and complete classification of the strategies and energy-efficiency measures that logistics and warehouse managers can embrace to improve warehouse environmental sustainability; (2) discuss the related main environmental impacts, as well as their economic implications; and (3) analyse the main motivations and hurdles behind the adoption of such practices.

This study has made significant contributions to theory-building in the field of green warehousing through a deductive-abductive approach to the literature review, as recommended by Seuring et al. (2020). Given the fragmented nature of research on energy-efficiency measures and solutions towards environmental impact reduction in green warehousing, a comprehensive literature review becomes essential for exploring concepts, their relationships and identifying key elements that can facilitate a transition towards improved environmental sustainability from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

By conducting a comprehensive analysis of green warehousing, this study has developed a framework of six main areas of intervention (“green strategies”) towards environmental sustainability at logistics sites. Such a framework combines energy-efficiency measures (i.e. focus on consumption – and related costs – reduction) and solutions towards environmental impact reduction (i.e. focus on emission decrease). The proposed framework can serve as a valuable resource for future research and decision-making aimed at enhancing energy efficiency and environmental sustainability at logistics sites. The proposed conceptual framework provides insights into areas of intervention, individual measures, their impacts, motivations and critical factors, offering a solid foundation for practitioners when making informed decisions regarding environmental strategies and performance measurement in their warehouses, in alignment with the findings of Silva et al. (2022).

Through this contribution, our study not only enhances the theoretical understanding of green warehousing but also provides practical implications for practitioners in effectively managing and improving the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of logistics sites. In this sense, our study makes a valuable contribution to middle-range theory-building within the field of green warehousing. Middle-range theory, in fact, bridges the gap between academia and practice, providing a conceptual foundation to explain and understand phenomena within a well-defined context (Swanson et al., 2020).

In addition to offering a deeper understanding of the specific phenomenon under investigation, our work also provides a basis for further theoretical development and future research directions. The proposed framework has also revealed the gaps and limitations of the revised literature, therefore highlighting streams for future investigation. In the following, five main research recommendations (RRs) for future investigation are offered and discussed.

Building upon previous investigations in the arena of sustainable warehousing (e.g. Bartolini et al., 2019), the present review offers a strong conceptualisation based on the available academic literature on the topic and opens streams for future investigation. From this viewpoint, further validation of the proposed framework also based on a practitioners' perspective could be a promising research direction. Indeed, besides the academic literature review, a thorough analysis of secondary sources (e.g. company sustainability reports, data from solution providers), as well as direct interviews with companies could be particularly beneficial to corroborate the proposed classification and list of energy-efficiency measures, or else include potential elements that have been neglected by academia so far. This recommendation seems specifically relevant also in light of the progressive technology enhancement and the advent of new solutions that can be added to the framework (Perotti et al., 2023). An updated and complete classification of green strategies and energy-efficiency measures can represent useful support to logistics managers when making decisions to improve the environmental impact of their logistics sites. As an example, recent technologies such as mobile robots (Bogue, 2016; Varma et al., 2021) or warehousing 4.0 solutions might be further investigated also with reference to their impact on warehouse energy efficiency and, in a broader sense, on warehouse sustainability performance.

No papers were found that specifically address the level of adoption of such strategies. Instead, most contributions were focused on one or a very limited spectrum of energy-efficiency measures, without offering a holistic perspective. Promising future research directions may involve the evolution of their adoption over time to build a benchmark, In line with Perotti et al. (2023). To this extent, it could also be interesting to study the companies' prospective interest in terms of future interventions on green warehousing processes.

Based on the examined sample, only a few studies provided methodologies for computing the carbon footprint produced by logistics and warehousing activities (e.g. Perotti et al., 2023) and no shared view was offered. Overall, there is a need for more reliable data to demonstrate how sustainable actions can decrease the carbon footprint and improve warehouse energy efficiency, as per Dobers et al. (2022). This could also encourage a higher awareness of these issues and – potentially – higher future investments in the sector.

The study of green strategies and related energy-efficiency measures within logistics sites as offered within the present paper needs to be further expanded to a supply chain level. This should involve the examination of how changes in logistics network design might impact the overall company's (or supply chain) environmental performance. Indeed, the strategic location of warehouses and the related allocation of resources to the various stages of a supply chain are of paramount importance and bring along the threefold objective of cost minimisation, service level improvement and CO2 emission reduction (Doolun et al., 2018). Furthermore, the sharing economy for storage services (“warehouse capacity sharing”) is also emerging as a new opportunity for improving the economic and environmental impact of warehouses thanks to a better saturation of the warehouse and better assets utilisation (Feng et al., 2017; Tornese et al., 2020). Further research is needed to explore how sharing warehouse concepts and principles can be leveraged to this aim. This new paradigm requires a further investigation of the enabling technologies and specific platforms to enable companies to match supply and demand of warehouse capacity and to acquire real-time information on the requirements of companies utilising the service to quickly and efficiently meet them (Unnu and Pazour, 2019).

Few studies have hinted at the positive relationship between employees' productivity and the adoption of energy-efficient solutions such as natural lighting, LED lighting and light sensors (Füchtenhans et al., 2021), or green roof technologies. Still, much must be done for other solutions to clarify their social/organisational implications for warehousing and guide changes in current organisational patterns to improve warehouse sustainability by decreasing carbon emissions and promoting energy efficiency, in line with Prataviera et al. (2022).

7. Conclusions and implications

This paper aims at offering a framework of strategies and energy-efficiency measures for improving warehouse environmental sustainability based on an SLR approach (Denyer and Tranfield, 2009) of 60 scientific publications dealing with this subject. Related economic and environmental impacts have been carefully examined and the main motivations and barriers that could influence the adoption of these green warehousing strategies have been discussed. Finally, five major RRs have been identified for further investigation in this promising research arena.

Although interesting findings emerged from this study, limitations do exist. In particular, the main limitation lies in the potential omission of relevant contributions from the review. Although the keyword structure was trialed repeatedly during its design to achieve a highly effective and feasible research space, we cannot exclude the possibility that other papers dealing with this subject do exist, but under different labels. Nevertheless, precisely because of the methodology adopted, we believe that this analysis provides an adequate representation of the state-of-the-art of literature relating to energy-efficient solutions for warehouses.

This research aims to fill a gap in a field that is receiving growing interest and has the necessity to organise the related knowledge more systematically. Results might constitute an important theoretical contribution to the topic of environmental sustainability in the green warehousing scientific literature. To the best of the Authors' knowledge, this is the first attempt at building a comprehensive framework specifically categorising green strategies and energy-efficiency measures for improving environmental sustainability at logistics sites. Researchers can use it as a starting point to focus on one or more strategies to investigate their adoption level within a business context, analysing the related benefits and critical issues associated with their implementation, or else quantitatively assessing the warehouse's environmental performance over time in terms of consumption figures – and related costs – and associated GHG emissions, as per Dobers et al. (2022). This could also be extended by means of addressing other energy-efficiency measures currently neglected by the literature. A promising area for future investigation may involve the social side of sustainability connected to the adoption of green strategies within logistics facilities, as well as its related implication. Another promising area of research, with relevant potential for practical applications, can be related to the development of models to assess alternatives of investment in (sets of) energy-efficiency measures for green warehousing, evaluate the most cost-effective option and identify the aspects that act as hurdles or drivers that determine the convenience of an option. This particular development could represent a value for companies that are considering making investments in this area but have no clear idea of the roadmap that can be embraced to reach higher energy-efficiency and environmental performance at their logistics sites, in line with Perotti et al. (2023).

Under the managerial aspect, this study constitutes valid support for warehouse managers and logistics service providers (LSPs) who are about to approach the challenge of turning their warehouses into greener nodes of their supply chains. Indeed, the proposed framework can be seen as a reference by managers willing to invest in green warehousing and are eager to understand the levers they should consider. Particularly, the identification of the possible areas of intervention, along with the expected related impacts (economic and/or environmental), can be a valuable starting point for the development of a strategic plan regarding the roadmap to be embraced in terms of energy-efficiency measure implementation at a logistics site. Moreover, although some specific features that influence the design and functioning of warehouses are sector-specific (i.e. refrigerated versus ambient-temperature warehouses), many commonalities would permit the application of this conceptual framework to different contexts. Wise environmental management of logistics sites can also help obtain building certifications (e.g. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM), Haute Qualité Environnementale (HQE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen (DGNB)) that help achieve higher sustainable performances and might increase corporate reputation.