The Journey Ahead
Letter from the Executive Director →
Dear champions of climate action,
As we reflect on 2023, I am both proud of and humbled by the strides the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) has made in the relentless pursuit of a sustainable future. This year was marked by unprecedented climate events that underscored the vital importance of protecting people with healthy and resilient buildings. The stories in this impact report are a testament to the tireless dedication of our team, the unwavering support of our donors and partners, and the profound urgency of the climate crisis.
The leadership of businesses, governments, and communities is needed now more than ever, and collaboration across sectors is key to action. IMT is in this middle space, supporting your leadership and inclusive processes for collaboration. Together, we can create healthy, resilient, low-carbon buildings that support a thriving economy for all.
In this historic moment, we are leveraging federal funding opportunities to scale the transformative initiatives you have supported over the years. We invite you to explore the pages that follow to learn more about IMT’s holistic accomplishments that are moving us forward.
Thank you for your unwavering support.
Lotte Schlegel
Executive Director
Institute for Market Transformation
Our Impact in 2023
U.S. Department of Energy selected IMT and its collaborators for a $5 million grant to decarbonize buildings and fight climate change in partnership with community-based organizations and local governments.
Our Building Innovation Hub provided critical guidance to owners and operators of 650 buildings to understand the new building performance standard. This effort, combined with other Hub activities, helped the District of Columbia reach a 90% compliance rate with the first compliance period for the new law.
Our Green Lease Leaders program increased 31% increase since 2022. The program now has the potential to affect 6.1 billion square feet of real estate owned or managed by our awardees in the U.S. and internationally.
Precious Rideout, Director of Community Engagement, earns a place on the Grist Top 50 Fixers list. Her team published the Community Engagement Framework, which offers guidance for other organizations to engage with community stakeholders.
Engaging Business Leaders
IMT’s long history of collaboration with the commercial real estate sector has given us a unique understanding of the challenges companies face in improving the performance of their buildings. We advocate for policy that is effective and can be implemented by the industry. We provide policymakers with clear guidance for metrics based on site energy use intensity, and reasonable timelines and pathways for compliance. Our programs offer critical services to the full spectrum of commercial real estate stakeholders—from building tenants, owners, and managers, to design and construction professionals.
Spotlight: Energy Policy Database
There is tremendous change right now in the real estate sector as more jurisdictions realize the critical role buildings play in climate action. The Corporate Engagement Opportunities (CEO) program was developed to help companies prepare proactively for a low-carbon future. Additionally, to help business leaders navigate new policies, we launched an Energy Policy Database that combines all BPS, benchmarking, and audit/tune-up requirements in a single, API-accessible database. Moody’s Analytics is now incorporating our data into their climate risk calculator. This Fall, we opened up the program to members of our CEO program.
“With the roll out of building performance standards and disclosure policies, CRE professionals are increasingly eager for tools that help them track the regulatory developments that will have the most tangible impacts on their CRE portfolios. IMT’s new Energy Policy Database will help us enable our clients to cut through the complexity of this rapidly developing and regionally fragmented policy landscape.”
Natalie Ambrosio Preudhomme
Associate Director, Moody’s Analytics CRE
Engaging Policymakers
IMT’s reputation for technical and strategic excellence has enabled us to work with federal and local governments on building performance policies ranging from benchmarking to audits and building performance standards. At all levels, we advocate for more inclusive policymaking that gives community-based organizations a decision-making role. In addition, we are taking every opportunity to assist our partners in leveraging new federal funds available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
On-the-ground support
Providing place-based support in West Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Santa Monica (CA); Minneapolis, New Orleans, Denver, Aspen (CO), Chicago, Orlando (FL), Portland (OR), Seattle, Washington DC, and Vancouver (BC), as well as several communities in Ohio.
Supporting both Maryland’s Building Energy Performance Standard regulations and staffing the state’s new Building Energy Transition Implementation Task Force, which was assembled to recommend programs, policies, and incentives aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the buildings sector.
Creating and delivering trainings on how jurisdictions can leverage the funds available through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Spotlight: White House and federal partnership
We have worked with the White House since the earliest days of the National Building Performance Standards Coalition, and we have helped more than 40 jurisdictions commit to building performance policies. Jurisdictions that signed on in 2023 include Berkeley, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood (CA), Minneapolis, New Orleans, t and Howard County (MD). Several states also joined, including Oregon, Massachusetts, and Maryland.
To support implementation, we launched our Better Buildings for Everyone webinar series featuring Heather Clark, Director for Building Emissions for White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy. Our five events have garnered more than 800 unique registrants. We also continue to participate in discussions with the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other departments on how to improve existing buildings in ways that lower energy and pollution, while also improving lives for frontline communities. This effort includes guidance on how federal programs can make federal funding more accessible and effective. Our collaboration also extends to personnel: Lindsey Falasca, former Director of the Building Innovation Hub, has been on detail to the White House Council on Environmental Quality as the Director of Net Zero Federal Buildings since Fall 2022.
Engaging Frontline Communities
We are committed to making the benefits of better buildings accessible to everyone. To do this, we work to ensure that residents from communities on the frontlines of climate change are involved in the policy process, and have the social and financial capital to lead decision-making. That means:
- providing funds and increasing capacity for community-based organizations to navigate policy development processes
- avoiding solutions that focus on carbon reduction without understanding the human impact
- respecting the knowledge and wisdom of frontline communities to lead on solving climate challenges.
Spotlight: Community Climate Shift and 5 Million DOE Award
To create building decarbonization policies that center the needs of frontline communities, we need to transform how communities and local governments work together. In support of this concept, the U.S. Department of Energy selected IMT and its partners for a $5 million grant to decarbonize buildings, fight climate change, and support a Just Transition. The funds from the Resilient and Efficient Codes Implementation—made possible through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—will support a cohort of jurisdictions to design and implement building performance standards and supporting policies through a community-led process. This effort complements the work done through Community Climate Shift, which is raising funds to enable residents and community-based organizations to fully participate in equitable decarbonization decisions.
Our impact is strongest when created in partnership.
IMT generates 90% of its support from philanthropy. Large or small, your contribution helps IMT pilot new projects, respond to emerging opportunities, and scale proven solutions. Make a gift today.
