Green Financiers Forum
This program serves as a bridge between the makers of green building and its lenders, underwriters, and third party evaluators.
Financers are key in determining whether a building project can be funded: whether it is worth the risk, and what those risks are. Therefore, lenders have the power to screen for green, energy-efficient building, as well as to create loan pools, loan products, and incentives for quality and performance. As they become informed, this powerful stakeholder group is strategically positioned to create a lending culture that promotes sustainably built housing.
However, the economic payback of green building is not widely demonstrated yet, nor has enough data been assembled to allow for mainstreaming of capital loan programs in green development. It is not yet widely perceived that green building does not necessarily cost more, and can have an economically attractive payback. The mission of the Financers Forum is to help these groups evaluate risk by providing data and financing scenarios, help them identify what lending solutions are appropriate for different situations, and help them identify opportunities to incentivize and facilitate green development.
Past and current participants in the Financers Forum include: the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, Boston Community Capital, Lend Lease, Inc., LISC, Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation, Boston Private Bank, Fleet Banking, Wainwright Bank, Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, and The Green Roundtable.
Hickory member Bill Reed was a principal advisor in the recent landmark report "The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings" developed for the Sustainable Building Task Force, a group of over 40 California State Agencies, and partly sponsored by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
