Green finance workshops to sharpen your competitive edge

A few days ago, we announced the kick-off of a series of workshops focusing on green finance and investment issues via our newsletter, Pacesetter (sign up here). We are posting it here, to update those blog readers who get their news via RSS feed and might not have signed up for our monthly newsletter, yet.

The US Green Building Council Northern California Chapter and law firm, Hanson Bridgett, have generously co-sponsored the seminar series, titled The Competitive Edge: Financial Tools for Green Building Investment.

Why the Competitive Edge?

We want to help you add more value to your marketplace. We’re convinced that there is a real need in the industry to understand how to approach analyzing the value-add of green strategies within real estate investments. So we worked with the US Green Building Council Northern California Chapter and Hanson Bridgett to organize courses that address the core of those issues:

• how to use the LEED rating system when analyzing project cash flows (and move beyond first costs)
• common investment analysis issues and tools for retrofits
• an approach for structuring the investment review of new and existing green buildings
• how A/E/C professionals can learn common investment analysis processes and terms to improve communication with property owners about design, construction, and budget issues.
• what to consider when assembling a portfolio or fund of green investment properties.

We believe that green finance and investment techniques represent the next level of skills that real estate professionals need to stay current with changes in the real estate market place. ‘

Since sustainable design can change the economics of a building, and there are many ways to go about creating a green building, finance and investment professionals need to know a good, and efficient, process for incorporating this information into their decision making.

Below are a complete list of courses as well as links to registration. Also, you can sign up and join our Pacesetter list, which will contain updates on these courses, too.

Competitive Edge Course Summary

• Course 1, “Investment Analysis of Green Buildings”, (March 3, 2010 - Register now) covers green investment underwriting skills that help professionals to quickly use the USGBC’s LEED-rating system in their decision-making. Full day seminar.
• Course 2, “Financial Considerations of Existing Building Retrofits”, (April 7, 2010) addresses the financial considerations related to energy efficiency retrofits, so that professionals can integrate the additional decision-making tools and analysis for making buildings more energy efficient. Full day seminar.
• Course 3, “Understanding and Communicating the Financial Case for A/E/C Professionals”, (April 28, 2010) gives architects, engineers and sustainability consultants an overview of the real estate investment analysis process, stressing how to use this information to ‘go beyond first costs’ in their conversations with owners about their green design and construction choices. Half day seminar.
• Course 4, “Raising the Bar: Green Investment Fund Strategies”, (May, 2010 - date to be announced) walks the real estate senior executive through the business and legal aspects of assembling a portfolio of green property investments so that they can create more strategic advantages for their firms via creating pools of green building investments for the real estate market.

Instructors: I’m pleased to be co-teaching these courses with David Longinotti, Partner at Hanson Bridgett.  Dave’s bio can be read here. You can check out my bio here.

To facilitate the best interaction, please note that seating is limited for all courses. Got any questions? Feel free to write us or call us at +1 (415) 655-6668. We’d love to see you there!

Galley Eco Capital helps Helsinki to reduce carbon emissions

San Francisco-based sustainable finance consultancy Galley Eco Capital was announced as part of a winning team for the redevelopment of the Jatkasaari district in Helsinki, Finland, which will be an urban zone with low or no carbon emissions.

Sitra, the innovation agency of the Finnish government, revealed today that the winning team for their “Low2No” development design competition was made up of Arup, Saurbruch Hutton, Experientia and Galley Eco Capital. The multi-national team was selected out of 74 initial entries, for their “C_life – City as Living Factory of Ecology” project.

Galley Eco Capital  brings their unique perspective as an international sustainable finance consultancy with a focus on creating green and socially responsible finance and investment programs.  Galley Eco Capital’s work complemented the architectural and consumer behavioral aspects of Jatkasaari by contributing new ways for finance to transform both the district and Helsinki market, to positively impact people’s lives.

The competition jury stated that the innovative monetary/economic model presented contributed significantly to the team’s clear top-down as well as a bottom-up strategy for leveraging the Jätkäsaari opportunity, in the spirit of the Low2No challenge.

Sustainable finance for Jatkasaari and Helsinki

While other team members devised the design, energy and consumer behavioral strategies for the project, Galley Eco Capital’s responsibility was to create an economic and funding model, which would support the project by integrating traditional and socially-responsible capital sources and products at a regional market level and set the right incentives to achieve maximum effect in terms of emissions reduction, energy efficiency and resource savings.

Starting with a thorough analysis of Sitra’s environmental and socially-responsible real estate objectives, the Finnish climate change agenda, and Finland’s participation within the global environmental finance markets, Galley Eco Capital developed ways to create a reliable pipeline of green mortgage, environmental, energy and carbon finance capital for Jatkasaari.

These products would all seamlessly connect with the traditional Finnish financial network to form a holistic financial system. Delicate synthesis was also required to create a flexible market structure, which would monetize available sustainability benefits while adequately funding the Jatkasaari project throughout construction and operation.

About Galley Eco Capital

Using their expertise in designing and implementing sustainable finance and investment programs, Galley Eco Capital’s strategies help investors, lenders and regional governments to bridge traditional with green finance and efficiently monetize the available sustainability benefits embedded within their real estate and renewable energy initiatives.

Galley Eco Capital’s unique approach assures more successful solutions through the application of interaction design principles, driven by culturally-aware, user-centric perspectives and underpinned by long years of international real estate and capital markets experience.

The strategies help drive positive change by:

• developing debt and equity financing structures based upon the value-add contributed by sustainability and energy efficiency,
• synthesizing traditional with emerging green financial products into holistic financial solutions,
• sourcing and structuring incentives and government subsidies to offset program costs,
• designing and monitoring sustainable investment performance measurement to assure positive program impact

Over the next 6 years, the Jatkasaari district will be designed, constructed and opened to the public. From there, the sustainable ideals that govern its day-to-day life will act as a model and example for the rest of Helsinki, Finland and the world. Through Galley Eco Capital, San Francisco will be a vital part of this journey.

For more information on the Low2No project, or on Galley Eco Capital, contact Lisa Michelle Galley, Managing Principal, at +1 415 655 6668, or via email at “lisa at galleyecocapital dot com”.

Galley Eco Capital Joins the greenMix Alliance

Galley Eco Capital announced today that it joins a new alliance with the goodMix and Green Key Real Estate, both leading eco-preneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area. The greenMix Alliance was specifically created in order to make a positive impact on the way developers communicate and sell to the green homebuyer. The goodMix will supply the alliance with public relations and advertising needs associated with green housing development. Green Key Real Estate brings a strong bench of Eco-Brokers and salespeople who are trained and passionate about the quality that green homes can bring to homebuyers lives.

Galley Eco Capital will provide the alliance with expert real estate financial services tailored to green real estate, including helping developers to quantify the savings and benefits their green homes will bring to the homebuyers.

Here is a link to the full press release: Galley Eco Capital Joins the greenMix Alliance

Galley Eco Capital Joins the Business Council on Climate Change Business Partnership. Takes Action To Reduce Greenhouse Emissions.

Galley Eco Capital has a history of taking action to protect the environment. They now join a list over 82 BC3 member companies dedicated to taking action to address global climate change, while maintaining a competitive bottom line. “Participating in the BC3 is a natural step in our commitment to both grow our business and be environmentally responsible” says Lisa Michelle Galley. “We are excited to work with other members of the BC3 to develop innovative, profitable business approaches that also directly address the growing threat of climate change.”

The BC3, a collaborative partnership with the Bay Area Council, the San Francisco Department of the Environment and the United Nations Global Compact, is poised to make the San Francisco Bay Area a model of commercial climate stewardship by inspiring leadership on the pressing issue of climate change, and giving business leaders the tools to reduce their GHG emissions. The BC3 recognizes that the business community has the power to significantly impact climate change, and it functions as an avenue for communication between companies that have stepped up to the plate to address this challenge. The BC3 seeks to inspire others to do the same, and to build a business movement for climate stewardship.

“The Bay Area has always been an engine of business innovation and growth combined with social responsibility and companies like Galley Eco Capital are a reflection of that environment and culture” said Andrew Michael, Bay Area Council Vice President of Sustainable Development. “They and other visionary BC3 members are proving that the protection of the environment is clearly aligned with the protection of profits and market share.”

The BC3 is built around five “Principles on Climate Leadership” which relate to the areas of: Internal Implementation, Community Leadership, Advocacy & Dialogue, Collective Action, and Transparency & Disclosure. These principles are founded on the belief that private business can shift practices to realize economic growth while maintaining environmental sustainability.

“The addition of new members gives us a great opportunity to redefine how business is conducted in the Bay Area,” says Jared Blumenfeld, Director of the San Francisco Department of the Environment, “and to show that we can surpass the status quo.” For additional information on the Business Council on Climate Change, contact: bc3@sfgov.org or for information on Galley Eco Capital visit: www.galleyecocapital.com

Premium Real Estate’s “Shift to Green” Assessed and Advanced at Infocast’s Green Building Finance & Investment Forum—East

LOS ANGELES, CA Leading institutional investors, fund managers, developers and thought-leaders will convene in New York City September 8-10, 2008 to gauge the impact of the “green tsunami” on property values and portfolio energy efficiency at Infocast’s Green Building Finance & Investment Forum–East.

One report and study after another (from Costar, New Buildings Institute, Leonardo Academy, among others) validate claims that green buildings lease faster, and at higher rents, and drastically cut operating costs, up to 25-30%. The U.S. General Service Administration and a growing number of major cities, including Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington DC, and Boston have mandated LEED™ standards for new buildings, with San Francisco and San Jose not far behind. A new consensus is emerging that the perceived risk factor once attached to green building may be shifting to non-green, as it depreciates against the long-term higher values of LEED™-rated projects.

Building on the momentum of Infocast’s remarkably successful Green Building Finance & Investment Forum – West in San Francisco, Infocast has brought together the most forward-looking and incisive industry practice and thinking around green buildings in order to provide a venue for high-level networking among participants who have made substantial commitments to sustainable property development and investment.

Speakers will debate the strategic implications of the new market statistics, and explore the freshest, most ahead-of-the-curve insights on how to maximize green value creation for both new projects and existing building portfolios. They will also explore cutting-edge topics such as green leases, imminent carbon regulation, intelligent and net-zero buildings, quantifying social and environmental metrics, and the impact of high oil prices and “vehicle miles traveled” on property values.

The Forum commences with a keynote by Douglas Lawrence, Managing Director of JP Morgan Asset Management’s Urban Renaissance Fund. Winston Hickox, former environmental policies advisor for CalPERS and Director at Thomas Properties Group, will offer the luncheon address. The Forum is preceded by two half-day workshops: “Future -proofing Property Values” and “Preparing Your Portfolio for LEED™ EB and Energy Efficiency Retrofits.” The event, produced by Infocast, is also sponsored by Greenberg Traurig LLP, Galley Eco Capital LLC, and Malachite LLC.

The Forum will take place at the Coleman Center in midtown Manhattan. Full details and agenda can be found at www.infocastinc.com/building. Registration: (818) 888-4445 x43.

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