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ccfath

Benchmarking Green: The First Investable US Green Property Indexes for REITs - Forbes - 1 views

www.forbes.com/...een-property-indexes-for-reits

shared by ccfath on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • FTSE Group, NAREIT, and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently announced a jointly developed green property index for both institutional and retail investors. This first of a kind index was a collaborative effort bringing together global market leaders in US real estate indexing, REIT market expertise, and environmental building standards.
  • The indexes, currently in the final stages of implementation, will give investors a structured and disciplined way to measure and model the risk and reward profile of green property, using the first codified, transparent definition of listed green property. In addition, the indexes will also provide investors with new ways to incorporate principles of sustainability into their property selections and portfolios, and access this investment theme through index-linked financial products
  • owners include many of the largest green portfolios, measured as the estimated share of total portfolio value that has either LEED or EnergyStar certification. Just a few of the representative green indexed REITs include Douglas Emmett (DEI), Government Properties Income Trust (GOV), Piedmont Office Realty Trust (PDM), Boston Properties (BXP), Franklin Street Properties (FSP), Brandywine Realty Trust (BDN), Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), SL Green Realty (SLG), Ashford Hospitality Trust (AHT), Kilroy Realty (KRC), Washington REIT (WRE), and Cousins Properties (CUZ).
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Seems like NAREIT and FTSE are launching these indices in response to investor demand for a new benchmark and new investment vehicles that reflect interest in sustainable real estate projects.
  • have recently been hearing more from our clients about which companies own LEED certified or Energy Star certified assets
  • Because of the growing demand for investors seeking to understand how their portfolios will be affected and how they can reduce their risk, the new green property indexes should be well received for institutional investors.
  • This bold new initiative is a milestone product that should lead to significant opportunities for this participating in the growing market.
  • Academics have been finding that green-certified properties outperform otherwise similar non-certified properties with higher rents and higher occupancy rates, but until now there’s been no way for any investor to take advantage of that outperformance except to buy the buildings themselves or to do immense research into which REITs own green portfolios.  We’ve essentially done the background work that makes it possible for investors to participate in the greening of the real estate market.
    • ccfath
      ccfath on 30 Nov 12
       
      Added Green REITs to list
Janine Shea

So You Call This CSR? Or One of Its Many Other Names? - Forbes - 0 views

www.forbes.com/...or-one-of-its-many-other-names

GroundUp Sustainability Brand Marketing Values Terms Forbes

shared by Janine Shea on 07 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Sustainability, on the other hand, is the more widely term used in Europe and is also my more favored term. And it’s not my favorite one simply because I regularly take “mental vacations” and imagine myself nibbling Parisian croissants by the Seine. Rather, sustainability connotes that a company is truly incorporating social and environmental issues into its business model. CSR or CR tends to be a collection of programs that address social and environmental concerns. Sustainability, however, makes these issues a part of the company’s DNA.  And ultimately, that is what my profession is striving toward: making sustainability “business as usual.”
  • Janine Shea on 07 Dec 12
     
    Preferred term: Sustainability (vs. social responsibility, citizenship, etc.)
Janine Shea

2013: What's In Store For Crowdfunding And Angel Investors - Forbes - 0 views

www.forbes.com/...owdfunding-and-angel-investors

GroundUp Crowdfunding Regulation SEC

shared by Janine Shea on 02 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • evolve into best practices and common leadership – this will accelerate the crowdfunding phenomena towards the $1 trillion market we predict it to be by 2020.  The investor democratization and customer communication involvement crowdfunding allows will trigger widespread corporate implementation by Q4, 2013.
  • mainly angels at this point – are in for the long haul
  • and not necessarily for a return on capital.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Symbid confirms that their investors want to live vicariously through the efforts and innovation of the issuers.  Their Angel investors frequently roll over their investments.  The investor communication tool allows for investors to easily be updated and even vote on board members and larger decisions with the founders.
  • “In Europe, there will be increasing fusion between crowdfunding and angel networks. The notion that they are two entirely distinct concepts is an artificial one, and we will begin seeing more and more investors using both online (crowdfunding platforms) and offline (angel networks) methods to make their investments.”
  • However, US Angel networks will embrace crowdfunding more when
  • prediction
  • crowdfunding for equity becomes legal in the US in 2014.
  • er dealers that will emerge in 2013 as crowdfunding for equity is delayed. 
  • The exception will be the new brok
  • Leading crowdfunding for equity players like Chance Barnett at CrowdFunder and Candace Klein at SoMoLend are getting licensed as brokers and will start engaging leading angel networks in the US.  SecondMarket’s partnership with Angelist is a recent direction how the landscape is changing.  Angelist had $12 million plus in transaction by angels into start ups in December 2012.
  • The new angel network ‘upstart’ FundingPost
  • While content is king, distribution is king kong
Janine Shea

How Mosaic brings cleantech investing to the masses | GreenBiz.com - 0 views

www.greenbiz.com/...ngs-cleantech-investing-masses

GroundUp Validation Crowdfunding Crowdsourcing Clean_Energy SEC Socially_Responsible_Investing

shared by Janine Shea on 10 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Invest as little as $25, or as much as you want, in clean-energy projects. Earn a princely 6.38 percent interest annually for the next five years. Make the world a better place.
  • Mosaic, based in Oakland, Calif., has figured out how to crowdsource solar projects in a way that seems to be a win-win for everyone. For each project, it seeks investors — smaller fries, like you and me — to fund a given project, promising a respectable rate of return. As loans get repaid, investors can roll the proceeds back into new projects, or take the money and run. Think of it as Kickstarter for clean energy.
  • He dropped out of Yale in 2002 to help build a youth movement for climate solutions.
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • “30 under 30” in energy by Forbes.
  • Their company started slowly, garnering interest-free investments from individuals to fund solar installations on five community projects. They range from homes on a Navajo reservation in Arizona to the Asian Resource Center in Oakland. All are smallish installations
  • I invested $100 in the Asian Resource Center installation in 2011, in equal parts to support the fledgling company as well as a social-service organization in my hometown
  • Those first projects were funded using a zero-interest investment model similar to Kiva, where investors get their principal back over time but no interest. This allowed Mosaic to avoid federal regulation and to go to market, learn the business, get feedback, and show traction for the idea. At the same time, it launched into the process of registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency that governs investment firms.
  • More recently, the company started raising money for projects in which it would pay interest. It can do this while waiting for SEC approval thanks to something called Regulation D, which exempts from regulatory oversight the offer and sale of up to $1 million of securities in a 12-month period.
  • A small group of investors was invited to put in as little as $25 and have been promised a return of 6.38 percent over five years.
  • The project is projected to save the youth center more than $160,000 through reduced electricity costs.
  • I invested $200 in this project as part of Mosaic’s private “beta” investment round
  • nlike investing in CDs, there are risks in Mosaic’s projects. The solar-installation customer could default on its monthly payments. The solar anels or installation could be faulty, tying the project up with repairs, negotiations, or worse.
  • If I want, I can reinvest the earned interest and repaid principal in other Mosaic projects with the click of a button.
  • “As an asset class, the default rates on solar leases and power purchase agreements are extremely low,”
  • There are a lot of unknowns: the number of people willing to invest sums, small or large, in energy projects offered by a start-up with a very short track record; the cost of attracting and servicing these investors; the number of available investment-quality energy projects; the actual performance of those projects during the life of the investments;
  • Together with a $2 million grant from the Department of Energy
  • , the company aims to scale its offerings, including geographically, to get millions of Americans involved with funding clean-energy projects.
  • It’s a bold idea: Raise money from the masses in order to bring solar to the masses, providing value to everyone along the way.
  • Having proved the concept, Parish and Rosen are now ready to kick things into high gear, throwing open the doors to all qualified investors.
  • “The economics of solar have begun to make sense in more places, and online investing and peer-to-peer finance are becoming widespread. Those are the two big forces that we’re a part of.”
  • I asked him why no one had done this before. “It’s a really difficult set of skills and competencies that you need to pull together on one team to make this business model work,” he explained. “You need the securities law expertise. You need the solar project finance expertise. You need the technology expertise to build the online investment platform, and you need the marketing expertise to get people to invest in the projects.”
  • For each project, Mosaic provides the underwriting and due diligence. “If we like it and it meets our investment committee’s criteria, we make a loan offer to the project developer or the project owner, and negotiate a loan to them.” Mosaic takes a servicing fee (the difference between the interest rate charged the developer and the rate pays investors) and an origination fee of between 3 and 5 percent of the loan, which the developer pays. Mosaic doesn’t do the installation itself — it contracts that out.
  • Clearly, not yet a pathway to riches. What’s needed is volume.
  • “Our goal is to be doing billions of dollars of investments a year in clean-energy projects,
  • “We have already had a lot of developers coming to us," he says. "We’re interested in offering high-quality, clean-energy projects for people to invest in.
  • We believe clean energy is good in and of itself and is a great asset class for investment. So we’re looking at all kinds of projects.”
  • It’s not just solar. Parish and Rosen are looking at a broader category of projects to finance — what they call clean-energy infrastructure. That includes other forms energy as well as energy-efficiency projects and electric-vehicle infrastructure.
  • All told, 51 investors ponied up $40,000 for the 106-panel installation; the whole project got funded in just six days. I’ve already received my first interest payment.
  • However it plays out, it’s a compelling and potentially disruptive business model. Allowing smaller investors to participate in clean-energy investments is an exciting possibility. And the relatively predictable returns of solar
  • can make these investments a safer bet than many traditional Wall Street investment vehicles.
  • And not for just small guys. Imagine if larger mission-driven investors, including pension funds and university endowments, started pouring money into Mosaic. The expanding investment pools could rapidly accelerate the growth of renewable energy and efficiency projects in the marketplace.
  • “I think a lot of people are just excited about the model,” says Parish, “and have been wanting to find a place that they can feel good about investing, that they can also generate pretty good yield from. And that’s what we’re trying to do.”
  • Parish makes a point: Some of this is an exercise in feel-good investing. But that’s nontrivial: How many of your investments do you feel good about? Even some of the so-called socially responsible funds hold stocks of fossil-fuel companies and other corporate nasties in their portfolios. If the nascent trend of disinvestment in fossil-fuel companies takes off among climate-minded investors, where will they next put their money? If Parish and Rosen have their way, there will be a new generation of cleaner investment alternatives to be found — perhaps, like me, right in your own community.
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