Interactive Mind Map - Energy Efficiency Finance Barriers and Simplifiers for Commercial Buildings

 

Today I’m speaking at the California Public Utility Commission’s (CPUC) workshops on energy efficiency finance for the commercial, industrial and residential sectors.

This is the second of a two day event that the CPUC is using to convene stakeholders to understand their views on the “state of energy efficiency finance” and what needs to be done in order to move  it forward.

I’ll be on a panel this afternoon that focuses on energy efficiency financing for market rate multifamily properties.

I sat in on yesterday’s commercial building session and had a great time sharing perspectives on the barriers and simplifiers to commercial building energy efficiency finance.  There were excellent speakers and a spirited crowd of practitioners sharing lots of great ideas (more on those later).

Where’s The Tenant End User in the Energy Efficiency Finance System?

One observation is that, while the various barriers were talked about in great detail and the many issues that landlords have with this new kind of product was analyzed in detail, absolutely no one brought up the connection between tenants looking for green and energy efficient space and how tenant acquisition and retention motivates landlords. Revenue opportunities tend to have that effect on companies.

If the CPUC policy makers and commercial real estate industry want to make real progress on the greening of buildings, they will have to embrace a systems view of how real estate works as an entire industry all the way to the end user tenant and occupant. Treating real estate like a collection of silo’s only assures that there’ll be plenty more workshops about barriers and simplifiers for decades to come.

Gaining a deeper, updated understanding — and innovating — the relationship and roles of landlord and their tenant customers vis a vis green finance will generate massive traction in the fight to reduce building energy.

Get the download on the top energy efficiency finance barriers and simplifiers

For right now, here are my notes for download on the consensus view of the biggest actions needed to make energy efficiency financing work for commercial real estate investors, reduce building energy use and emissions. By the way, this is an interactive mind map — your browser needs a flash player to view it. Email me if it doesn’t work. I’ll send you a static pdf map with all the branches opened up so you can see the notes.

Does the mind map format work for you?

Please comment here and let me know. I’ve been sharing my teaching notes via mind maps with my Presidio graduate finance class this semester and they like it.

What do you think about energy efficiency finance?

Finally, I’d also appreciate hearing  what you think about the state of energy efficiency finance for commercial real estate and its barriers and possible simplifiers. Please pass this along and let others know here what people are saying.