Real-estate leaders should revalue assets, decarbonize, and create new business opportunities. Here’s how.
A good measure of what to expect when we talk “Green Capex” for office buildings in the near future: “The repositioning will include a deep energy retrofit, full electrification of gas-fired systems, HVAC modernization, including advanced heat recovery, and onsite renewable energy generation from a solar photovoltaic system that is designed to exceed annual consumption.”
"A majority of listed REIT are already takin positions and acting with a Green Agenda, although there is still a great gap in terms of required Green Capex."
“Variations of gas bans have spread from liberal enclaves like Berkeley, Calif., and Brookline, Mass., to bigger cities, including San Jose, Calif., Seattle and Sacramento, as efforts to curb climate change increasingly take aim at the burning of gas as well as oil. What made the bill a harder sell in New York — where 40 percent of carbon emissions come from buildings — was winter.”
"By 2030, Mr. Biden wants the federal government to purchase electricity produced only from sources that do not emit carbon dioxide, the most plentiful of the human-caused greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. By 2032, the Biden administration wants to see the emissions from building operations, such as heating, cut in half. And by 2035, all new federal cars and truck purchases would also be zero-emissions.”
“San Francisco has become the biggest American city yet to ban natural gas in new buildings. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who wrote the legislation, says natural gas is responsible for 44% of the city's overall emissions and is responsible for 80% of building emissions.”
"Ithaca, New York, begins to fully decarbonize all of its buildings as the first phase of a novel 100% carbon-free city climate policy. Cities are seen as key leaders in U.S. climate change efforts and the massive stock of legacy buildings and residences with low energy efficiency drives a huge portion of carbon emissions. Ithaca’s buildings equate to 40% of its carbon footprint and it is working with building energy specialist BlocPower on the project. To secure political approval and community buy-in, Ithaca lined up $100 million in private financing from Alturus for the effort and will seek up to $250 million more for additional climate change efforts including transitioning the city to electric vehicles."
