by Shane Henson — August 7, 2013—The Carbon War Room, an organization seeking to accelerate profitable, entrepreneurial solutions that reduce carbon emissions, recently announced the launch a new report highlighting a variety of innovations in finance, technology, and policy worldwide that have the potential to make buildings more energy efficient.
According to the Carbon War Room, the report, Raising the Roof: How to Create Climate Wealth through Efficient Buildings, represents the culmination of three years of work across 30 cities around the world. It assesses the current “state of play” on market barriers and solutions facing multiple sectors, with case studies offered from a range of cities, including San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Vancouver; and Wellington, New Zealand.
The report cites significant upfront capital costs, risk misperceptions, misaligned financial interests, and the lack of information as key barriers undermining the potential of the global market. Despite the nascence of the market, rapid expansion is expected over the next 18 months due to:
- A whole suite of “Big Data” products hitting the market, including digital audits, retro commissioning, and optimization, will enable asset owners to save up to 25 percent on their energy bill with little or no upfront capital expense.
- Significant progress in financial innovations, like Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), On-Bill Repayment, and Energy Savings Agreements (ESAs) are now maturing and expanding in scope. Also, new proposed structures like using Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) for Energy Efficiency have the potential to vastly grow the capital available for retrofits.
- Market-enabling policy innovations, including benchmarking ordinances like Australia’s NABERS program, Singapore’s Energy Conservation Act, the U.K.’s “Green Deal,” and utility de-coupling in the United States, are helping drive retrofits.
Currently, there is an opportunity worldwide to abate carbon at a gigaton-scale using profitable, market-based energy-efficiency solutions. These solutions do not require government subsidy or changes in policy and regulation. For example, the United States alone currently spends more than $400 billion each year to power its homes and commercial buildings and is responsible for almost 40 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, says the Carbon War Room.
Despite the macro-opportunity, individual asset owners or sustainability directors of municipalities still face the challenge of determining the best approach and the best options available to them. To help, the report provides a step-by-step guide on how to differentiate between the various technologies and financial mechanisms.
