Image Source: HEC4Climate
This is the first of many sustainability topics in the built environment, I will give a brief overview of green financing and in later articles will be giving specifics of some of the points given, lets delve in shall we?
What is green building finance?
This is finance offered to buildings that are more resource efficient and are environmentally friendly.
Are green buildings expensive?
The cost to build is slightly higher than a convectional building at between 0 - 5 %, but this is recovered through the operational savings (upto 40%) that can be achieved by building green.
What financing option are available to building owners
Green construction loans and green morgages offered by international/local banks and financial institutions.
Cash incentives offered for building high performance buildings
Tax rebates and special rebates on specific technologies like solar photovoltaic or LED lamps.
Financing of green buildings byblocal municipalities/counties and money recovered through hogher property taxes (e.g PACE Program in the U.S)
Purchase agreements provided by a utility provider that recovers the cost through a higher tariff over time.
Carbon Offsetting : A green building owner could offset and trade their carbon credits with another organisation and therefore get some extra financing.
