by Mark J. Bennett and Douglas J. Feichtner (October 2009; 7 pages) This article examines recent trends related to climate change and sustainability and their impacts on environmental due diligence. The authors say quantifying a building's energy and sustainability condition, performance, and potential will become commonplace and now is being incorporated into routine commercial real estate transactions. They believe commercial property sellers should consider expanding the scope of what they might traditionally consider “material” to the condition of the property to include energy consumption and cost data as well as sustainability characteristics that could affect such consumption and costs.