Page 44 - Green Builder July-August 2017 Issue

CREDIT: GREEN HOME INSTITUTE

3. Standardization

INVESTORS NEED A WAY TO ASSESS BUNDLES OF
PROJECTS, RATHER THAN LOOKING ONE BY ONE.
In established markets like auto sales or student loans,
lenders have common standards for categorizing
financial products and risks. The financial sector is only
beginning to use these for buildings.
Existing market standards, including green building
certifications like EDGE, LEED and others are often
familiar to investors. Investors may, therefore, better
CREDIT: THE NAMA FACILITY understand projects that use these certifications, which
can increase the likelihood of investment. Governments
can use policies such as financial incentives to encourage

which can help increase the demand for building
Stable conditions. Cities that adopt and enforce energy codes can stimulate broader adoption of these existing market standards,
demand for energy-efficient homes and apartments—and lure lenders into efficiency technologies to meet those certifications.
green financing. Project documentation standards, like the Investor
Confidence Project protocols, make projects comparable
1. Stability by standardizing the data points provided to and assessed by
financiers. Standard data also allows investors to assess multiple
INVESTORS SEEK PREDICTABLE OUTCOMES. Without clear policy projects quickly, categorize them by risk and sell them in groups
or guaranteed returns, private investors are unlikely to lend to build- to a secondary market, as is beginning to happen in initiatives like
ing efficiency projects. the Warehouse for Energy Efficiency Loans (WHEEL) in the United
Governments can establish policies that set expectations for the States. Secondary markets in turn enable larger-scale investments
building sector. Cities that adopt and enforce building energy codes, and greater confidence in returns.
for example, can quickly increase local demand for energy efficiency
technology. Stable demand means a stable market for finance. Mexico 4. Segmentation
City’s Secretary of Environment Tanya Müller García said at the
forum that the city’s new construction regulation, which includes THE BUILDING MARKET’S FRAGMENTED NATURE PRESENTS
energy efficiency standards for the first time, is beginning to create CHALLENGES FOR INVESTORS LOOKING FOR PROFIT. Even in a
more demand for voluntary energy efficiency. single city or district, investments in building efficiency could involve
Private investors also want evidence that the money they lend a wide variety of technologies (air conditioning, boilers, lighting),
will be repaid. In new markets where a record of repayment does property types (homes, offices, schools) and decision makers (build-
not yet exist, governments that guarantee repayment can better ing managers, homeowners).
attract investment. Risk-sharing agreements, such as one between
the Government of India and the World Bank, designate who will
take financial losses and by how much, taking some burden off of
financial institutions.

2. Scale

HIGH TRANSACTION COSTS CAN UNDERCUT INVESTOR PROFITS.
To reduce these costs within their portfolios, investors look for
markets with high demand and large transaction sizes. Financiers
typically aren’t interested in an investment until it reaches a scale
of around $10 million, as Bruce Schlein, a sustainability and finance
leader at Citi, noted in a forum panel.
To create the scale needed for [business] investments, government CREDIT: DENVER HOUSING AUTHORITY
action can aggregate demand for finance from multiple projects.
The Berlin Energy Agency, for example, creates pools of public and
private building efficiency projects to make them attractive to energy
service companies that provide technical assistance and funding. ‘S’ sense of green. The various ‘S’ elements can lead cities into
programs like the Department of Energy’s Building Efficiency
To date, the program has reduced energy bills by more than $199 Accelerator, which helps make green projects more attractive to
million. investors.

42 GREEN BUILDER July/August 2017 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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