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BENCHMARKING
For the Most Part, Business Doesn’t Use It
The world’s largest companies have been talking about benchmarking for years. Most have programs in place. Internal departments, including corporate real estate, need tough comparisons to highly effective peer departments in other companies in order to improve. But according to Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard, "at most companies they [benchmarking discussions] appear to occur only at the top--between the board and the CEO or during a discreet lunch between the chairman and his pals from McKinsey or Blackstone. Rigorous benchmarking rarely occurs companywide." The truth hurts, but you cannot get better without knowing it.
LEASING
Lease Accounting — Major Changes in the Offing
U.S.-regulated companies can choose to keep some real estate leases off of their balance sheets by structuring them around rules in Financial Accounting Standard (FAS) 13. Recently, companies have been compelled by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to disclose off-balance-sheet leases in footnotes to their financial statements. But the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and SEC believe this treatment could confuse or totally escape the view of investors. So, the FASB has voted to revamp lease accounting rules to make them simpler, clearer and not subject to circumvention. In Michelle Leder’s CFO magazine article "Rewriting the Rules," she says, "An amended FAS 13, expected in 2009, could force companies to put lease expenses on their balance sheets." Suddenly boosting the value of expense ledgers will do interesting things to corporate profits and losses. Stay tuned.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
State by State GDP Growth Rates
An article in ReliablePlant entitled "Real Gross Domestic Product Figures Listed by State" reports that "Newly available data on the state distribution of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth confirm that economic growth was widespread in 2006, as GDP grew in all states except Michigan, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis." The chart shows growth rates by region.
 Source: ReliablePlant
High-Tech Sector Keeps on Growing
The assumptions about high-technology industries are borne out by recently released federal jobs data: both the goods and services components of this sector employed more people in the first half of 2007 than the same part of 2006. A report by the technology industry trade group AeA compiling these data says, "High-tech manufacturing employment in the United States is up in the first six months of 2007. Technology manufacturers added 1,800 net jobs in the United States from January to June of 2007 for a total of 1.34 million jobs. This represents a slight 0.1 percent increase. High-tech services employment in the United States is also up, adding 116,600 net jobs in the United States from January to June of 2007."
CEOs Deplore Trade Protectionism
A survey of top corporate executives on a range of economic and business issues reveals that even rising energy prices and the threat of terrorism do not top fear of protectionism as a threat to the international economy. See this report for 12 charts illustrating survey results on topics ranging from economic growth expectations to a vote for the best nation for corporate investment.
Top General Purpose Website:
Source: IEDC
Top-Rated Economic Development Web Sites
The International Economic Development Council evaluated its members’ Web sites and finds that the top general purpose sites belong to Milwaukee, Tucson, Bismarck and Blue Ash. IEDC rated both special-purpose and general-purpose sites each for four population size categories.
Poor Regions Held Back by Old Technology
A new study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) implicates the lack of modern technologies in depressed areas as the key cause behind a growing income gap between wealthy and poor countries. However, there’s a silver lining in this cloud. An article about the report on the IMF’s Web site explains that "Despite this observed rise in inequality, per capita incomes have risen across virtually all regions for all segments of the population, including the poorest. As a result, the poor are now better off in absolute terms, although in most cases incomes have risen at a faster pace for those who are already better off."
Real Estate Markets
Boston Marks Seventh Consecutive Quarter of Positive Office Absorption
 Boston office market vacancy rate
source: OfficeSTATus Shanghai Property Markets Struggle to Keep Pace with Torrid Growth
 Energy Management
Digest of Energy Management Issues, Updates and Trends
The McMorrow Report is a great source of concise summaries about dozens of energy-related issues relevant to corporate real estate and facilities management. The summaries include source information to assist with further research.
Award Winning DVD Helps Builders with Energy Efficiency
The building products company CertainTeed has published a DVD called "Commercial Building Science Concepts and Practices" that according to an article on IMFA.com
"illustrates how natural forces affect a building and outline strategies for achieving energy efficient buildings, identifying trouble spots in construction, and planning for safety, comfort and convenience." The DVD contains sections dealing with each of the following topics: "Introduction to Commercial Building Science, Thermal Control in Building Envelopes, Air Barriers, Moisture Management, Understanding Acoustics and Sound Control, Building for Fire Safety, Creating Comfortable Environments, and Green Building through Sustainable Design."
New Federal Group to Focus on Energy Efficiency and Management
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has created a new working group called the Energy Innovations Sector to focus on such issues as demand response and energy efficiency. In a speech given by FERC Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff, he describes the new group this way: "The Energy Innovations Sector will provide the technical knowledge that will allow the Commission’s staff to analyze the various matters that come to the Commission for effects and implications for demand resources, energy efficiency, distributed generation and renewables. They will also operate as in-house technical adviser to the Commission in identifying and addressing issues related to the integration of these resources into wholesale markets, reliability, transmission planning, and resource adequacy."
-- Joel Parker
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