AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has introduced green leases for all its commercial lettings in Germany. The lease format is already being implemented in France, where about 20 new contracts have been signed.

AXA REIM's long-term goal is to roll out green leases across its entire portfolio.

A green lease includes reciprocal commitment terms for regular meetings focused on sustainability; sharing of energy performance data between tenants and landlord and the joint definition of asset-specific sustainability action plans and the subsequent following-up of their implementation.

Matthias Leube, head of real estate Germany for AXA Real Estate, said: 'The introduction of green leases in Germany represents the first step in a wider sustainability programme to ensure we work closely with our occupiers to limit the impact of our buildings on the environment. We also hope that the introduction of green leases will not only become standard across our portfolio but across the whole industry.'

AXA REIM is the largest real estate portfolio and asset manager in Europe with over EUR 40 bn of assets under management at-June 2011.