EDITOR'S VIEW

ne of the many benefits of our Excellence in Corporate Real Estate Awards program is the inspiration we can gain from the winners’ achievements. Take DFW International Airport’s John Terrell, for example (see coverage of the Excellence in Corporate Real Estate Awards). Terrell is credited with developing a program to create new revenue sources from what’s under the runways and land surrounding them that is proving to be as valuable – or more so – than the revenue generated by the companies that land planes on those runways or operate other airport operations. What’s underground and highly lucrative for DFW is a natural gas deposit – the Barnett Shale – that Terrell helped turn into a gold mine for the airport. You hardly notice the wells or well pads here and there when cruising in or out of DFW at 180 mph.

      The importance of the energy angle here I am sure is not lost on our readers. Maybe it’s just seldom that a corporate real estate professional can leverage the properties in his or her domain to an energy advantage, especially to a revenue advantage. Maybe it’s just not been investigated enough. What are your properties sitting on that could yield energy-related revenues? Are you, or is your department, involved in exploring those opportunities? Will your superior wonder about the energy potential on or under your company’s properties and look to you for advice?

      The extent to which you can answer these questions is the extent to which you can help advance the importance of the corporate real estate profession. That’s important to the profession, because we all benefit. But it’s important to you, because you can benefit by pushing the envelope in the next round of Excellence in Corporate Real Estate Awards in 2009. And there are lots of ways you can execute your role as a personal center of excellence in sustainability –

see our conversation with Tom Cooper, worldwide water program manager for Intel Corp., in our story on water infrastructure.

      Awards aside, energy considerations will only grow in importance as the November elections loom, and your role professionally can dovetail that. We look forward to learning more about your experiments in this area and to perhaps recognizing those efforts with an Excellence in Corporate Real Estate Award next year.

      In the meantime, the rest of this space goes to thanking my colleagues for their tireless work in my absence the week this issue went to press. By a strange confluence of stars, or just dumb luck, yours truly served jury duty (and served on a trial) in the days normally devoted to seeing this issue off to the press. Adam Bruns, Scott Larsen, Bob Gravlee and Ron Starner are the kind of colleagues you want around you when the going gets rough.

      Heartfelt congratulations to our first annual Excellence in Corporate Real Estate Award winners – and thanks, guys.

      Till next time,

      Mark Arend