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The Green Building Finance Consortium (GBFC) is a research and education
initiative founded in 2006 by Scott Muldavin, President of The Muldavin Company,
Inc. to assist private sector investors underwrite sustainable property
investments from a financial perspective.
Mr. Muldavin, and the team that have worked with him are primarily real estate
finance, valuation, and investment experts who more recently have become
involved in sustainability. Mr. Muldavin co-founded a multi-billion dollar
private real estate fund and has completed over 300 finance, investment, and
valuation related consulting assignments.
Individuals in the green building industry approached Mr. Muldavin in 2006 to
explore the potential for “Green” Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities. In
exploring this issue, Mr. Muldavin discovered that there was limited information
available on the financial or market performance of sustainable properties, that
real estate experts did not do the work that was done, and sponsorship of work done
was typically from organizations with a vested interest or advocacy posture
towards sustainable property investment.
The Green Building Finance Consortium was formed to help fill the void of
information, methods, and practices for the valuation and underwriting of
sustainable properties. While in 2006, when the Consortium was founded, the public sector
was pioneering
sustainability in some of its properties, yet the private sector was well behind.
Accordingly, the Consortium chose to focus its efforts on enabling private sector
participants to make sustainable property investment decisions from a
financial/fiduciary perspective.
Given the critical importance of independence, GBFC has also chosen to not
accept membership or financial support from green product or green building
trade organizations, and limits the individual investments of any organization
in the Consortium’s work. GBFC does accept support from a select group of
governments, non-governmental organizations, and real estate industry companies
actively involved in energy efficiency and sustainability investment.
The strategy of the Consortium from its founding has been to develop the content
(how to value and underwrite sustainable properties) and widely disseminate the
results of its work. To both be a true “Consortium”, and provide a mechanism for
distributing the content of our work, we have sought memberships and
collaborations with key trade groups in our key target markets:
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• Corporations and other owner-occupiers
• Tenants
• Investors (property owners)
• Developers
• Lenders
• Appraisers and
• Brokers
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Fortunately, the Consortium has been the beneficiary of leadership at BOMA
International, the Urban Land Institute, the Pension Real Estate Association,
the Mortgage Bankers Association, and the National Association of Realtors, all
of who are supportive Members of the Consortium. Additionally, the Royal
Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the Appraisal Institute, CoreNet Global, and
other trade associations have provided board members, engaged in collaborative
projects, and offered other support and assistance.
Beyond our target markets, our work provides insights into decision-making by
real estate capital providers that should be helpful to architects, engineers,
consultants, contractors, and other service providers and product organizations
as well as governments involved in designing regulations and incentives to
maximize their impact on private sector sustainable and/or energy efficient
investment. In this regard, we are working with many organizations worldwide to
provide our publications and research to non-target market groups that seek such
resources.
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