USGBC & Real Estate Leaders Discuss Green Building

Washington, DC, October 18, 2007--The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and The Real Estate Roundtable hosted the first annual USGBC Real Estate Finance Summit in New York last week, attracting leaders from all facets of the real estate and financial services industries.

 “We believe our customers will increasingly demand high-performance, sustainable buildings as a basic element of what constitutes Class A commercial real estate…whether they are looking for space in an office, apartment, retail, hotel or, even, industrial warehouse building,”  said Roundtable President and CEO Jeffrey D. DeBoer.

“Green building has moved from a frill, to a necessity, and we will lead by example,” said New York City Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff  “We did our own study of New York buildings and discovered those buildings we greened had 30% less energy use and the renovations and retrofits have a 5-7 year payback.  That’s huge for a city like New York.”

The Summit also included two panels, one of leaders from the real estate industry and a finance panel.

“It’s clear from the dialogue at the summit that we need financing served up in ways that reward and provide incentives for green building,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president and CEO of the USGBC.  “We know we need more green technologies and innovations to drive costs down and drive performance up, and LEED’s metrics to verify that performance.  And we need policies that move us all in a sustainable and restorative direction."