Green bonds focus on financing future investments – such as greener buildings or renewable energy projects – that produce attractive financial risk/reward scenarios, reduce greenhouse gases, and/or provide other positive environmental benefits. Most importantly, gre …
By Dan Winters on
15 Sep 2014 •
openbook 5 minute read
The apartment REIT sector is receiving welcome and long overdue news - the ENERGY STAR program is releasing a new multifamily energy benchmarking and scoring tool in Fall 2014. Owners and operators of existing multifamily housing properties with 20+ units will be able t …
By Tim Taylor on
22 Aug 2014 •
openbook 2 minute read
In the recent McKinsey Global Survey of over 3,300 executives representing a diverse range of industries, respondents reported that sustainability is increasingly becoming a key component to their companies’ strategy. Over 40% of executives surveyed say that their com …
By Dan Winters on
23 Jul 2014 •
openbook 2 minute read
In the second quarter of 2014, two major publicly-traded commercial real estate investment trusts raised a combined $700 million in general obligation debt for investing in real estate development and/or retrofit projects identified as ‘green’.
These bond offerin …
By Dan Winters on
07 Apr 2014 •
openbook 7 minute read
Building commissioning is a quality assurance process used in the real estate industry that has proven effective to improving the long-term economic performance of a building’s operating systems and equipment. It’s so effective that to secure a LEED rating at any …
By Dan Winters on
24 Feb 2014 •
openbook 2 minute read
One of the most common questions posed by real estate professionals is, “What are the benefits of pursuing a LEED rating, and what are the marginal investment requirements necessary to attain these benefits?”
This GBIG Insight Research Anthology – High Performa …
By Dan Winters on
30 Jan 2014 •
openbook 4 minute read
The final day of Greenbuild 2013 closed with a talk from Nate Silver, an American statistician and #1 best selling author of “The Signal and the Noise”. One take-away message was how ‘signals’ have economic value and can serve as a window into goals, values an …
By Dan Winters on
22 Jan 2014 •
openbook 4 minute read
Imagine this scenario: As an accomplished real estate professional who oversaw the LEED and ENERGY STAR certifications of several assets in your portfolio, you size up the market and make the decision to sell a concentrated group of assets. You are confident in the …
Am I doing enough? Are we doing enough? These are questions I ask myself as the Arctic’s ice and Greenland’s glaciers melt at an accelerating pace and as our planet’s life support systems continue to be subjected to relentless assault from extraction, overuse and …
By Dan Winters on
20 Nov 2013 •
openbook 2 minute read
Over 350 of the Northeast’s top professional real estate appraisers packed the room at the annual 2013 New England Appraisers Expo held just outside Boston. The dominant theme was how the private market adoption of LEED and ENERGY STAR along with increased transpare …
