Let’s meet at Tulane’s Green Finance Conference, 10-11 March 2011
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Two Reasons to Attend ‘Strengthening the Green Foundation’
I want to make sure that you have the latest on Strengthening the Green Foundation, an exciting green finance conference that’s taking place at Tulane University, in New Orleans, this Spring.
Tulane University’s new Master in Sustainable Real Estate Development Program and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta invite researchers, industry practitioners, and policymakers to participate in a conference to advance the understanding of and improve the practice of green development and finance.
1. Set the Agenda: Advance the Study and Practice of Green Building Finance
Core research tracks include the development and finance industry structure, green valuation, and portfolio management. Practice and policy tracks include green underwriting, green measurement and certification issues, and green leasing.
Read the complete call for papers, which includes details of the conference tracks, the abstract submission process, and deadlines, as well as a link to the online abstract submission site.
2. Leverage Time: Meet Me, Other Practitioners, Policymakers and Green Finance Specialists
This will be a great use of your time spent on understanding the green finance space. I have the honor of being among the speakers and am excited about the great list of practitioners, researchers and policymakers who are scheduled to present.
If you are attending, please drop me a line at and let me know. Â This is a breakout year for green finance and I’m sure this event will be filled with thought-provoking insights you can’t miss!
What will change everything in 2011 and beyond?
A few 2010 events either changed or reinforced perceptions enough to influence sustainable finance in 2011 and beyond:
1. Positive Green Building Momentum & Performance
Confirming year-end data reinforces the value of building environmental certification.
- LEED-certified buildings have reached a footprint of 1 billion square feet worldwide, with another six billion square feet of registered projects in the pipeline.
- In the The Economics of Green Building, researchers demonstrate that green building economic performance was not affected by recent market volatility, that the economic premiums in the green properties studies remain substantial and energy efficiency does contribute to higher rents and values.
2. Quantified Credit Risk for Environmental Irresponsibility
- If your lender shrugs when you tell them that building environmental certification benefits them, too, send them a copy of Corporate Environmental Management & Credit Risk. Rob Bauer and Daniel Hann’s prize-winning study that demonstrated how US companies engaged in environmentally risky activities paid a premium for their bond debt of up to 64 bps per annum.
3. Innovative Structure Straddles Real Estate & Energy
- We covered Hunt Power’s use of the REIT structure to offer up to $2.1 billion in energy infrastructure finance via joint ventures, purchase and leasing. There are several energy and technology sectors that urgently need better ways to access capital than the market can provide. Look out for more novel, hybrid investment structures that bring commercial solutions to financing sustainability across buildings and other domains.
4. Regulatory Ramp Up Continues
- Carbon cap and trade has arrived in California, joining building energy disclosure requirements and Cal Green. Under new regulations adopted 20 December, greenhouse gas emissions of large industrial plants will be capped from 2012 forward. Given California’s legal requirement to reduce emissions by 15% from today’s levels by 2020, we will continue to see heavy action both within California, as well as California’s experience influencing how these issues are handled in other states and even within the Federal Government.
5. PACE: New Tools Equal New Perceptions
- We dedicated substantial coverage last year to tax-lien financing for energy efficiency. Professionals from diverse sectors joined forces to cheer on property-assessed clean energy’s brave fight…and boo the regulators as they killed most residential programs. New tools equal new perceptions. PACE’s major success has been how it helped build awareness and shape positive perceptions. Now practitioners realize that such structures are possible and urgently needed. That’s kicked off a lot more interest in getting green finance right from now on. Policy makers are working on various versions of PACE 2.0 or other PACE-like enabling legislation. It’s hard to tell what progress they’ll make, but PACE’s potential helped focus commercial real estate and government on the market need for such structures in a way not seen before.
So, what kind of market do you think you’ll sell into?
With so much momentum already underway, what are the prospects for your building portfolio? We think successful investors in the coming years will be good at continuously re-imagining and reinventing their businesses, often at highly local levels.
Which of these events carry the most weight for green real estate?
What’s missing from the green finance conversation that you think needs attention?
