LXP Industrial Trust Uses BREEAM as a Framework for Portfolio Progress

With 22 properties and nearly 16 million square feet certified, the firm has built a consistent apporach to measuring and benchmarking performance. 

LXP Industrial Trust (LXP) is an asset owner focused primarily on single-tenant, triple-net-leased industrial properties across the U.S. With 58 employees and a portfolio spanning 12 target markets, the company takes a long-term approach to owning and managing industrial real estate across a nationally diversified platform.

LXP integrates sustainability into its broader business strategy through its ESG+R program, with a focus on measurable performance, operational excellence and long-term value creation. The program spans environmental performance, tenant engagement, employee initiatives and community impact, embedding sustainability across the organization and its approach to asset ownership.

BREEAM has become an important part of LXP’s approach to managing sustainability across its industrial portfolio. To date, the company has certified 22 properties through BREEAM USA In-Use and completed two rounds of recertification, representing nearly 16 million square feet. LXP has strategically prioritized certification across its 12 target markets, using the program to build a comparable, verifiable view of asset performance across its portfolio over time.

This approach is particularly valuable for LXP’s predominantly single-tenant, triple-net-leased portfolio, where tenants typically control building operations and pay utilities directly. Rather than relying solely on information generated through day-to-day property operations, BREEAM gives LXP an independent framework for evaluating assets and understanding where opportunities for improvement exist.

Over time, the certification process has become part of how LXP approaches sustainability at both the asset and portfolio levels. Lessons from assessments and recertification cycles inform how the company engages tenants, evaluates building performance and advances broader sustainability objectives.

LXP’s primarily single-tenant, triple-net-leased portfolio presents a distinct challenge. While the firm remains accountable for the long-term stewardship and value of its properties, its tenants have significant control over how those buildings are operated and consume resources. This creates a structural disconnect between ownership and operations, making it harder for LXP to understand how individual assets are performing and pinpoint where intervention could have the greatest effect.

LXP needed a credible framework that could help bridge that gap. The company identified BREEAM as a way to bring an independent perspective to individual assets, establish a common basis for evaluating properties and create new opportunities to work with tenants around the buildings they occupy.

BREEAM USA In-Use gives LXP a standard for evaluating individual properties within a net-leased portfolio. The independent assessment provides an objective basis for understanding how properties are performing and identifying where targeted reinvestment can strengthen long-term value, without requiring LXP to control day-to-day building operations.

Energy

LXP uses ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager to track utility performance and smart metering to enable automated, real-time utility tracking at select assets. Energy data forms part of the broader performance dataset used to assess assets and track progress across the portfolio.

Water

Water data is included in LXP’s ESG performance tracking. Water data, alongside energy, GHG emissions and waste data, undergoes independent assurance aligned to ISO 14064-3, providing third-party verification of reported figures.

Waste

Waste data is tracked as part of LXP’s broader ESG reporting and undergoes independent assurance aligned to ISO 14064-3. This contributes to a consistent, auditable dataset that can be compared year over year.

Tenant Engagement

Green lease language requires tenants to share utility data, helping LXP compile building-level data coverage over time. The firm also provides sustainability reference guides, regular newsletters and direct engagement to support tenant efficiency and ESG objectives, driving certification on behalf of both the owner and tenants to create shared sustainability outcomes.

For LXP, BREEAM has become a tool for turning sustainability objectives into a more informed approach to portfolio management. The insights generated through certification and recertification help the company benchmark properties, identify where investment in building performance can strengthen long-term value and inform decisions across its holdings.

That role is becoming more important as LXP expands certification strategically across its 12 target markets, with a goal of having 40% of its consolidated portfolio green building certified by 2030. BREEAM assessments are complemented by asset-level utility data, smart metering and independent assurance, while LXP’s ESG+R Taskforce reviews progress quarterly and carries those insights into annual reporting and GRESB submissions.

The program has also created a stronger connection between asset performance and tenant engagement. LXP drives the certification process on behalf of both the company and its tenants, using the process to bring building performance into conversations with occupants and identify opportunities to improve efficiency. Green lease provisions further support that collaboration by enabling more consistent utility data collection. Nearly 16 million square feet are now BREEAM certified, and more than a third of LXP’s revenue comes from buildings holding a green certification or ENERGY STAR rating. Tenant satisfaction has also remained above the Kingsley Index benchmark, reaching 4.19/5 in 2024.

BREEAM program: BREEAM USA In-Use