The Green Finance Institute and Laudes Foundation have forged a funding partnership focused on accelerating the market for financing a net-zero carbon built environment. The funding and strategic support from Laudes will focus on the work of the Green Finance Institute’s flagship Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB), which brings the public and private sectors together to co-create and rapidly up-scale new markets and financial mechanisms that mobilise capital at pace and scale towards the decarbonisation of buildings.
The Green Finance Institute and Laudes Foundation share a common sense of urgency around the need to rapidly decarbonise the built environment, which is also a key policy objective in the UK and across Europe. In the UK’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, for example, greener buildings account for 39% of the total target of cutting UK Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 180 million tons between 2023 and 2032. To achieve the EU’s 55% emission reduction target by 2030 it needs to reduce buildings’ GHG emissions by 60%, final energy consumption by 14% and energy consumption for heating and cooling by 18%.
In the lead up to COP26, and beyond, the partnership will support the Green Finance Institute’s ongoing efforts to establish and scale the financial markets and mechanisms, and build capacity at the local level, necessary to deploy capital in the real economy and translate governments’ high-level policy and financial commitments into action by reducing overall GHG emissions from buildings on a trajectory aligned to the Paris Agreement. This will also help to create new growth opportunities, including for sectors that have been hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, while increasing accessibility to affordable low-carbon housing and reducing fuel poverty.
The Green Finance Institute provides a critical interface between private finance and the public and non-profit sectors, adopting a coalition-based innovation process to build capacity and unblock barriers to investment to channel global capital into local solutions.
The CEEB, a 300 member-strong group of changemakers from finance, real estate, energy and policy, is leading on the creation and delivery of real-economy products and mechanisms to build the market for financing the decarbonisation of homes. The partnership will support the CEEB to bring a portfolio of UK-based demonstration projects to market and help expand the CEEB’s work across low-carbon heating. The partnership will also explore how the CEEB model could establish a framework, work programme and innovations that are replicable or easily adapted for local markets in other European countries and ultimately around the world.
Laudes Foundation, launched in 2020, is a new independent foundation responding to the dual crises of inequality and climate change by providing its partners with philanthropic capital, expertise and collaboration, focused on specific sectors to help catalyse systems change. Laudes Foundation works across the built environment and fashion sectors, and influences finance and capital markets to move towards a new economy that values all people and nature.
Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, Chief Executive, Green Finance Institute said: “We urgently need to retrofit our homes and building stock to meet net-zero targets. The partnership with a leading philanthropic institution such as Laudes Foundation will enable us to accelerate the innovative work being carried out by our CEEB coalition, building on our work in the UK to date by seeking international opportunities to channel capital towards local solutions that help deliver greener, more resilient and more comfortable homes.”
James Drinkwater, Head of Built Environment, Laudes Foundation, said: “Investment flows into constructing and renovating homes to net-zero carbon standards remain far below the levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. It’s also critical this enables the many, not just the few, to benefit from a better built environment.
“The Green Finance Institute demonstrates the catalytic effect that a coalition of financial institutions, supported by building industry experts, can deliver through rigorously identifying investment barriers, co-designing new, practical and impactful financial solutions and clearly presenting the enabling conditions needed to scale their adoption. We are delighted to support its pioneering work, and to explore how a similar approach to unblocking the barriers to investment can be adopted elsewhere in the global effort to decarbonise the built environment.”
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Green Finance Institute: SECNewgate, +44 (0)20 3757 6500, comms@gfi.green
Laudes Foundation: Stephanie Klotz, +49 172 761 6017, s.klotz@laudesfoundation.org
About the Green Finance Institute
The Green Finance Institute is an independent, commercially focused organisation, supported by HM Treasury, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the City of London Corporation. As the UK’s principal forum for public and private sector collaboration in green finance, it is uniquely placed to mobilise capital to accelerate the domestic and international transition to a sustainable, net-zero carbon economy that is also climate resilient. The Green Finance Institute convenes and leads mission-led coalitions to identify and unlock barriers to deploy capital at pace and scale towards impactful, real-economy outcomes. For more information visit greenfinanceinstitute.com and follow @gfi_green.
About the CEEB
The Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB) was established by the Green Finance Institute, with support from E3G, as its flagship coalition in December 2019. Made up of more than 300 individual members from the finance, property and energy sectors, and across policy, academia and non-profit organisations, the CEEB’s remit is to develop the market for financing a net-zero carbon and climate-resilient built environment in the UK and internationally.
The CEEB has developed decision-useful insights and real-economy solutions including:
- The development of financial mechanisms and data tools across the Coalition’s working groups, including the Green Home Retrofit Finance Principles that launched in September, and a portfolio of further solutions which will be brought to market throughout 2021;
- In-depth analysis of the investment barriers to retrofitting and heat decarbonisation in UK homes;
- Extensive engagement throughout the year with government and regulators to create the enabling conditions for product development and rapid capital deployment;
- Continually sharing best practice across the industry and internationally through advocacy for the Coalition’s findings and solutions.
- The pioneering solutions and initiatives by individual members include the launch of Community Municipal Investments by Abundance Investment; the Accelerator Cities programme with its retrofit playbook for local authorities; the sustainability bonds issued by Clarion Housing; Legal & General’s commitment to make all new homes ‘net-zero enabled’ by 2030; the green mortgage propositions launched by Nationwide, Natwest, Newbury Building Society, and many others; the Optimised Retrofit and VALUER projects being led by Sero; and TrustMark’s leading role in delivering the Green Homes Grant scheme.
About Laudes Foundation
Laudes Foundation is an independent foundation joining the growing movement to accelerate the transition to a climate-positive and inclusive global economy. Responding to the dual crises of climate breakdown and inequality, Laudes supports brave action that inspires and challenges industry to harness its power for good. Part of the Brenninkmeijer family enterprise, Laudes builds on six generations of entrepreneurship and philanthropy, working collaboratively to both influence finance and capital markets and transform industry with a focus on the built environment and fashion. For more information visit LaudesFoundation.org.