Tuesday, April 16th
8:00 am - 11:15 am
The Marker Hotel San Francisco
501 Geary St
San Francisco CA 94102
Green Econome will be in San Francisco! Please join us at The Marker Hotel San Francisco for the Bisnow Bay Area ESG & Sustainability Summit. Green Econome CEO, Marika Erdely will be joining a stellar roster of panelists discussing:
Los Angeles, CA (March 26, 2024) - Green Econome is proud to announce that it has received the 2024 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a second consecutive year.
Green Econome Founder and CEO, Marika Erdely reflects on the meaning of this award, “I am incredibly proud to be an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year, two years in a row. Since founding this company in 2009 from scratch, to being acknowledged by the EPA for the quality work we do, I am very appreciative of the hard work and integrity of our team, and our clients who entrust us with their business. We have achieved this recognition together.”
Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a select group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to energy efficiency and the transition to a clean energy economy. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services, and strategies. These efforts have saved more than five trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity over the past 30 years. In 2023, Green Econome benchmarked over 1,200 buildings, with 9 buildings earning their first-ever ENERGY STAR certification. Through ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® web services, Green Econome introduced custom analytics and client reports in 2023, and is developing a client dashboard, further customizing how clients can view and interact with their building data.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda creates unprecedented opportunity to build a clean energy economy, and private sector partners through programs like ENERGY STAR are leading the way,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “I congratulate this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for their innovation and leadership, in delivering cost-effective energy-efficient solutions that create jobs, address climate change, and contribute to a healthier environment for all.”
Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2024 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.
About Green Econome
Green Econome is a woman-owned small business in the dynamic intersection of sustainability and commercial real estate, providing energy and water efficiency compliance, consulting, and construction services nationwide. Our integrated team has over 20 years of combined experience finding energy-efficient solutions that positively affect market valuations, reduce environmental impact, meet ESG and sustainability goals, and ensure regulatory compliance.
About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts can be found at www.energystar.gov/impacts.
Media Contact:
Karalyn Honea
karalyn@greeneconome.com
In this episode of The Commercial Real Estate Report podcast, Chris Berg of Abernathey Holdings and Green Econome Founder and CEO, Marika Erdely take a deep dive into:
The Commercial Real Estate Report is dedicated to bringing you in-depth analyses, market trends, and expert opinions from the world of commercial real estate. Whether you're an investor, a developer, or simply someone interested in the dynamics of commercial properties, they've got you covered. Find them on YouTube @TheCommercialRealEstate. Listen, share, subscribe.
Please join us on Wednesday, January 10, 2024, for lunch, learning, and networking at Tangram Interiors' beautiful space in Newport Beach. Green Econome CEO, Marika Erdely will be discussing:
Space is limited. Registration is required and closes on January 9, 2024 at noon. We hope to see you there!
Wednesday, January 10th
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Tangram Interiors
1375 Dove Street, Suite 300
Newport Beach, CA 92660
Since our inception, the U.S. EPA’s ENERGY STAR® programs have been at the core of Green Econome’s services to help our customers save energy, save money, and protect the planet. As a commercial real estate owner or manager, you have the power to make a positive impact on the environment and your bottom line. October is National Clean Energy Action Month, a perfect time to take action and implement energy-efficient practices in your buildings. One of the best ways to start is through ENERGY STAR benchmarking and certification.
ENERGY STAR is a program by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that helps businesses and individuals save money and protect the environment by promoting energy-efficient products and practices. Through benchmarking, you can compare your building's energy performance to similar buildings and identify areas for improvement. Certification, on the other hand, recognizes buildings that meet strict energy efficiency standards and have lower energy costs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By using ENERGY STAR benchmarking and certification, you can reap numerous benefits for your buildings and your business.
Cities and states nationwide are adopting climate action plans, which in many cases include annual ENERGY STAR benchmarking to track energy and water use and building performance standards to reduce GHG emissions across their existing building stock. Often ENERGY STAR certification is an exemption from having to perform costly audits, retro-commissioning, and efficiency improvements.
Energy-efficient buildings consume less energy and therefore have lower energy bills. According to ENERGY STAR, certified buildings use 35% less energy and emit 35% less carbon dioxide than typical buildings. By benchmarking your building's energy performance, you can identify ways to reduce energy waste and save money in the long run.
ENERGY STAR certification is a badge of honor that can increase your building's value and appeal to potential tenants or buyers. Certified buildings are more attractive to environmentally conscious tenants who prefer to work or live in sustainable spaces. Moreover, building certifications are being used as ESG targets and requirements by tenant companies, REITs, and investment firms.
Energy-efficient buildings are not only good for the environment and your wallet, but also for the health and comfort of occupants. By reducing energy waste, you can improve indoor air quality, reduce noise levels, and enhance thermal comfort. This can result in higher productivity, better health outcomes, and happier occupants.
Implementing energy-efficient practices and achieving ENERGY STAR certification can improve your business's public image and reputation. You can promote your achievements to your stakeholders, customers, and the media, and showcase your commitment to sustainability and energy conservation.
Join us this month in celebrating the progress made, and more importantly, taking steps to further the clean energy transition needed to sustain our future. Take a moment, gather your team, and discuss with purpose what changes and goals you can commit to in 2024 and beyond. When you have the vision, take action. Call (424) 422-9696 or Contact Us. Talk to you soon!
Green Econome is a woman-owned, small business providing energy and water efficiency compliance, consulting, and construction services for commercial real estate. Our Los Angeles-based team of licensed and credentialed professionals takes an integrated approach to finding efficiency solutions that positively affect market valuations, reduce environmental impact, meet ESG and sustainability goals, and ensure regulatory compliance.
Santa Monica, CA (March 28, 2023)—Green Econome is proud to announce that it has received the 2023 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Marika Erdely, Founder and CEO of Green Econome states, “Receiving this recognition for our partnership with the EPA and ENERGY STAR program is a significant milestone for our organization. Green Econome was founded to meet the demand for ENERGY STAR benchmarking as local and state energy disclosure laws were put into place over a decade ago. Green Econome is celebrating ten years of compliance services, so earning 2023 Partner of the Year is that much sweeter. We have benchmarked nearly 2,000 properties and pride ourselves on being a leader in accurate reporting and industry expertise. We wholeheartedly invest in ENERGY STAR as a trusted platform that we lean into for benchmarking, building certifications, and now GHG emissions metrics, data management for our client’s ESG goals, and driving reduction targets.”
“As we accelerate historic efforts to address climate change, public-private partnerships will be essential to realizing the scale of our ambition,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “I applaud this year’s ENERGY STAR award winners for working with EPA to deliver a clean energy future that saves American consumers and businesses money and creates jobs.”
Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a select group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the transition to a clean energy economy. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale, and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services, and strategies. These efforts are essential to fighting the climate crisis, protecting public health, and creating a clean energy future for everyone.
Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. Visit Green Econome's profile page, or for a complete list of 2023 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.
About Green Econome
Green Econome is a woman-owned, small business providing energy and water efficiency compliance, consulting, and construction services for commercial real estate. Our Los Angeles-based team of licensed and credentialed professionals takes an integrated approach to finding efficiency solutions that positively affect market valuations, reduce environmental impact, meet ESG and sustainability goals, and ensure regulatory compliance.
About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts can be found at www.energystar.gov/impacts.
Media Contact:
Karalyn Honea
karalyn@greeneconome.com
The latest focus in sustainable commercial real estate is on “Environmental, Social, and Governance,” also known as ESG. ESG has received attention from regulators and investors, and, according to a recent report from Deloitte, “sustainability has become a strategic imperative across industries”. Real estate professionals need to begin focusing on how ESG can impact portfolios and policy. Let's identify:
Here is a simple table identifying some of the elements of ESG:
Soon, public companies will need to report on the three ESG categories, also known as an ESG Strategy, to their investors. The SEC’s proposed Rule on Climate Disclosure gives companies a roadmap for ESG reporting and requires disclosures related to climate-related risks that could have an impact on their businesses, whether it’s their day-to-day operations or a financial impact on their real estate assets.
The SEC proposed reporting will be part of the public corporation's quarterly and annual disclosures and will detail the company’s carbon footprint and include reporting on greenhouse gas emissions from real estate and the climate-related risks to those assets. At NAREIT’s ESG conference I attended this fall, several panelists suggested that insurance companies and banking institutions will be considering climate disclosures in their financial metrics. Additionally, it was mentioned that investors from the European Union would also be looking at ESG disclosures when considering investments in the U.S. Most public companies have been focusing on their ESG strategies, and the process of gathering data for this year’s ESG disclosures is already underway.
What about private companies, and the private commercial real estate owners that lease to space public companies? Private owners should also focus on having an energy-efficient property and should not ignore the trend toward ESG.
The “E” in the ESG framework stands for “environmental,” which refers in part, to real estate and the efficiency of buildings. All buildings emit carbon emissions, and these emissions (in the forms of kWh and therms) can be broken down into three kinds: Scopes 1, 2, and 3.
Initially, Scope 1 and 2 emissions will be required to be disclosed by the SEC. However, public companies will soon be mandated to report Scope 3 emissions as well.
Mandated reporting means that if you have a tenant in one of your buildings that is providing products to a public company, the tenant will soon have to be reporting on their building’s emissions and activities. There will then be an effort to reduce those emissions, even if your building is not operated by a public company.
As with anything new, standards and protocols are being established, along with a host of innovative technologies to harness data. As a trusted platform, Green Econome utilizes ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager, which gives owners data that can be used to calculate the property’s total emissions. The EPA is actively developing the platform further, to better meet the demands of GHG accounting and scope emissions reporting.
Green Econome takes a systematic approach to ESG, along with a team of advisors, we measure, identify opportunities, implement, and analyze results to ensure you are on target to achieve your environmental goals. If building certification is part of your strategy, we can fulfill those as well.
There’s good news! There are many financial benefits from the new Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) to commercial property owners and developers.
Personally, I like the investment tax credit (ITC) known as the federal solar tax credit and the fact that it is now back up from 26% to 30% of the total project cost through 2033. Currently, our solar pv projects are benefiting from 58% of the project cost being covered by this tax credit and federal and state depreciation deductions.
Section 179 (a tax deduction) of the IRA provides owners with a dollar amount per square foot if the commercial or residential building meets a certain efficiency standard. Owners can earn $5 per sq. ft. for new construction or retrofitting a building, depending on its resulting energy efficiency. It is a laddered benefit ranging from $2.50 sq. ft. for a 25% reduction in energy usage up to a maximum of $5.00 sq. ft. for 50% or more.
For multifamily landlords, Section 45L (a tax credit) allows up to $5,000 per unit (single-family or apartment) if the building meets certain energy efficiency criteria.
Energy-efficient buildings will be worth more and will be more attractive for public companies concerned about emissions. Soon, everyone will be thinking about ENERGY STAR Benchmarking —a viable tool to produce data for reporting on your building’s performance.
ENERGY STAR Benchmarking is already widely used for energy and water disclosure laws across the county (and Canada). You can view IMT's national map of programs currently in place.
As an expert in reducing commercial property emissions, I anticipate a big push to move real estate into the world of ESG reporting, which goes a long way toward environmental sustainability. Once the SEC finalizes its ruling, all public companies will be required to focus on the “E” on their buildings like never before. Additionally, I believe that when companies also consider the “S” for Social and “G” for Governance, they will ultimately be better stewards of the planet.
If you need an expert to understand your building’s energy or water efficiency and emissions, please reach out to me at Marika@greeneconome.com. At Green Econome, a team of professionals is ready to help you meet your ESG requirements, save operating costs, and increase the value of your property.
Marika Erdely, MBA, LEED AP+C, Certified Energy Auditor, Fitwel Ambassador
MarikaE@GreenEconome.com
(818) 681-5750
Marika is an expert in energy and water efficiency and is the Founder and CEO of Green Econome, an energy consulting and construction company located in Santa Monica, CA. Marika has over 30 years of professional financial experience and approaches sustainability through an economic lens.
Green Econome’s CEO, Marika Erdely, sat down with CREtech Climate Podcast host, Michael Beckerman, to share insights on:
The CREtech Climate Cast is a podcast series devoted to educating, inspiring, and leading the built environment to address the world’s biggest crisis - climate change. Tune in to in-depth conversations with the leading real estate and tech innovators from across the globe with CREtech Climate CEO, Michael Beckerman.
Discover the opportunity for Commercial Real Estate in corporate accountability.
ESG, or Environmental, Social, and Governance is a set of standards used to evaluate an organization or community’s commitment to sustainable (Environmental), ethical (Social) practices, and outlines how those goals will be measured and achieved (Governance). Driven in large part by the boom of ESG or sustainable investing, it is important to look at the wider implications this has, specifically for commercial real estate.
You don’t have to be courting investors, or publicly traded to implement ESG strategies. The bottom line is this is the direction the world is moving. From our perspective, here are four important reasons to consider real estate ESG:
As much as ESG is seen as a trend, it is so because it is at the tipping point of a new paradigm defining this generation and generations to come. It is a framework to approach this decade of action that we are in. The space between energy efficiency, the main business model for Green EconoME, sustainability, and carbon reduction is growing closer, rapidly. Accounting for the impact of your business on its community and the value of who makes it hum is not only responsibility, it's economic success. If you are ready to start your ESG journey, or if you have more questions about ESG, please reach out to Green EconoME.
Human activities such as burning coal and fossil fuels have led to increases of roughly 90% in carbon dioxide emissions and 78% in greenhouse gas emissions globally since 1970. As of 2014, the United States is responsible for nearly 15% of that CO2. The five highest polluting sectors are energy production (grid), land-use (deforestation, agriculture), transportation, industrial activities...and buildings.
Across the globe, the above statistics are widely understood. The fact that it is our responsibility to solve and clean up the problem is also widely understood. Local, federal, and international energy policies have aligned with deep decarbonization targets by 2050. In an effort to meet these goals, collaborative programs, coalitions, and think tanks are energized, creating coordinated solutions across the private sectors.
These coordinated efforts along with meaningful change, are fundamental to adopting a paradigm shift. In this article, we hope to offer a clear understanding of what decarbonization is, and a strong business case for why becoming part of the solution works, no matter where you place the value.
Decarbonization is the process of removing carbon. The act of decarbonization, or to decarbonize is to reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in order to address atmospheric pollution and meet climate goals. This is the basis of the decarbonized economy.
The Decarbonized Economy
Mobilized by climate policy, a decarbonized or low-carbon economy uses clean power sources and practices to lower greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide output into the atmosphere. The need to deploy clean energy strategies with speed and to scale, stimulates research, innovation, job creation, and economic growth. Additionally, a decarbonized economy prioritizes ecosystem resilience, including not only biodiversity but humanitarian issues.
What are the benefits of a decarbonized US economy, specifically? The World Resource Institute compiled data that shows clear economic benefits to decarbonization.
So how are we going to do this? The strategies to achieve deep decarbonization nationally and globally are wide and well, deep. For example reforestation, carbon capture, family planning are all ways to offset and reduce emissions. For our purposes, let’s focus on our business: strategies for decarbonizing buildings.
Building decarbonization is segmented into embodied carbon, which in simple terms are the cumulative emissions from construction and operational carbon which are the emissions from the use of a building. The primary strategies in operational decarbonization are:
These strategies are mainly focused on operational decarbonization; however, it’s important to be embodied and operational inclusive. Even with retrofits to existing buildings, coordinating design, new technologies, methods, and deeper savings through synergistic measures will increase the value and efficacy of the project.
Globally, if we can accomplish this mid-century deep decarbonization we will make strides in restoring our vital ecosystems for a millennium. If as a nation we can overcome the barriers we face to take action, we can, year by year reverse the climate crisis we already experience through increased and costly events such as wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, pandemics, and heat waves. Climate change is interconnected with human development as well. Stabilizing temperatures stabilize our crops and food supply chain. Energy efficiency benefits everyone, but especially low-income families. Making cleaner, low-cost energy available in poorer communities ensures energy security and access to healthier environments inside homes and neighborhoods.
Green EconoME founder and CEO, Marika Erdely is invested in getting customers to their decarbonization goals and inspired by getting to net-zero. “The ability to eliminate gas in a building, replace it with electrical equipment, add solar PV, and a storage battery and then go off the grid while also reducing ongoing operating costs is exciting. Electrical costs will continue to rise, but if we are able to add the generation and storage factor to the building, we will be able to offset these increases in costs. To get to a net-zero carbon building would be fantastic!” Marika speaks in detail on this topic on the Building the Future podcast. Multi-family residential is one good example of a property type where we see opportunity for deep savings and impact on the community. Paired with the SoCalREN incentive program, decarbonization of the building and providing low-cost energy to each tenant is achievable.
Marika is also Co-Chair of the New and Existing Building Committee of the USGBC, LA Chapter, Decarb Committee. A collaboration of Los Angeles’ energy leaders, their mission is to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built, and operated. Schedule a personal Q&A to explore and get started on becoming part of the solution.
