Purpose – In recent two decades, several important innovations have emerged and been adopted in the built environment across the world.  Amongst the most prolific technological innovations are green (sustainable) and intelligent (smart) buildings design.  The adoption of that innovation was particularly visible in the commercial property market. In the case of sustainable design, the process has been facilitated by the emergence of independent third party governance institutions and the development of green building certification systems. In many cases, the process of innovation diffusion is a spatial phenomenon that manifests as hierarchical/cascade or contagious dispersion of given technological advancements.

Design/methodology/approach – We analyze the spatial diffusion of sustainable innovation across commercial property markets in major cities in Poland. Using a city-level panel data we trace the diffusion of green building innovation diffusion. We focus on major green building certification scheme – LEED developed in the US, In the empirical part, we investigate the adoption of new technologies by analyzing the fraction of innovative (green) office space in particular office markets.

Findings – The diffusion of green innovation was particularly fast between 2010 and 2020 in all selected cities. Nonetheless the explorative research suggest that the dynamics of adoption of green technologies is different in selected cities. The adoption rate was the highest in Wroclaw, and the lowest in Krakow.

Limitations – The study focuses on diffusion of LEED certificates, and as such it does not cover all sustainable buildings. Many office projects have different green building certificates (mainly BREEAM).