Finance

While high-performance buildings offer many benefits to owners, tenants, and their communities, many building owners continue to struggle to access financing for energy efficiency projects. IMT’s finance resources explore various financing tools and models available for cities, building owners and tenants, and utilities, among other entities. Scroll through our blogs and resources below.

The Latest

Green Bonds Primer

Bonds are the largest source of capital in the global market. Bond labeling has been a popular tool since bonds were created. Labeled bonds have been used to fund the railroad, aircraft, highway, and war industries. Many of the financiers and investors who offer bonds are interested in the environmental impact of the projects they … Continued

Energy Performance Contracts Primer

Energy Performance Contract EPCs are one of the most successful and long-standing financing mechanisms specifically for energy efficiency. Although most EPCs to date have been used to fund government efficiency projects, they have also worked effectively for the private sector. EPCs are typically designed so that the value of energy savings is split between the … Continued

Energy Service Agreements Primer

Energy Service Agreement An Energy Service Agreement (ESA) is a pay-for-performance, off-balance sheet financing solution that allows customers to implement energy efficiency projects with zero upfront capital expenditure. Through the ESA, the ESA provider pays for all project development and construction costs. Once a project is operational, the customer makes service charge payments for actual … Continued

On-Bill Financing and On-Bill Repayment Primer

On-Bill Financing/Repayment On-bill financing (OBF) and repayment (OBR) are financing options whereby a utility or lender supplies capital to a utility customer to make energy efficiency improvements and is repaid through regular monthly loan payments on an existing utility bill. One of the benefits of these programs is the potential to serve a broad set … Continued

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Primer

Property Assessed Clean Energy Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing is a structure in which building owners take on debt for energy efficiency or renewable energy improvements that is repaid through an assessment on their property tax bill. The stability of the property tax bill allows building owners to make long-term investments in their buildings … Continued

Tax Increment Financing Primer

Tax Increment Financing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is a financing option that uses expected future gains in state or municipal property taxes from a development or redevelopment project to finance improvements that will create those gains. It has been used as a community development tool for decades. TIF is offered by jurisdictions to attract private … Continued

Deep Retrofit Value (DRV) Green Leasing Tool

IMT and the Rocky Mountain Institute recently developed a Deep Retrofit Value Green Leasing Tool to help both tenants and tenant representatives better estimate the business value of sustainable office spaces beyond energy cost savings. This will help tenants determine how much they might be willing to pay per square foot for a sustainable office … Continued