{"id":14963,"date":"2021-12-15T10:56:07","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T10:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/sustainability-goals-should-not-fail-due-to-a-lack-of-time-or-knowledge\/"},"modified":"2021-12-15T10:56:07","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T10:56:07","slug":"sustainability-goals-should-not-fail-due-to-a-lack-of-time-or-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startgreen.nl\/en\/sustainability-goals-should-not-fail-due-to-a-lack-of-time-or-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability goals should not fail due to a lack of time or knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Expert blog – December 15, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

Joost Vlot is Investment Manager for Energiefonds Overijssel. His expertise lies in making real estate more sustainable. In this blog, he describes how he helps fulfill the sustainability goals of property owners. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Insulation, generation, and reuse
\n<\/span><\/strong>Making real estate sustainable is primarily about insulation. After all, any energy you do not use does not need to be purchased or generated. It is also about energy generation and reuse. There are many ways and technologies to save energy. Heat recovery systems, which extract energy from air or water before it is discharged, are highly innovative. By helping owners make their real estate more sustainable, we help Energiefonds Overijssel achieve its energy transition objectives. <\/p>\n

50 shades of green<\/span><\/strong>
\nBefore this, I worked at ING Bank. I primarily translated my passion for sustainability into my search for opportunities to make our home and neighborhood more sustainable. I did and continue to do this for, among others, 50 tinten groen Assendorp<\/a>, a foundation that aims to encourage, advise, and guide residents of the Zwolle district of Assendorp in taking sustainability measures. These come in many shapes and sizes. Think of shared mobility, solar panels, facade gardens, floor insulation, waste separation, and so on. Hence the name ’50 shades…’. <\/p>\n

Combining work and passion
\n<\/span><\/strong>A career in impact investing makes it possible for me to combine my personal passion with my experience in the financial sector. That is how I ended up at StartGreen Capital. Here, I am mainly involved in making real estate sustainable for Energiefonds Overijssel. This primarily concerns the approach for existing buildings. Fortunately, there are already many sustainability standards for new construction, although we can also provide financing for those projects. <\/p>\n

Win-win model
\n<\/span><\/strong>A major challenge in sustainability is that the owner is often not the user of the building. While the owner pays for the sustainability measures, the user receives the direct benefit. A housing corporation, for example, generally has no direct interest in lower energy costs through sustainability, so why would they invest in it? However, housing corporations often do want to keep rental costs manageable, which is a challenge with current energy rates. There is now the possibility to recoup part of an investment from tenants, such as a contribution for solar panels, but this is often insufficient. Energiefonds Overijssel can propose options that make sustainability entirely financially viable. <\/p>\n

For this purpose, we use, among other things, an ESCO model: an Energy Service Company<\/em>. The ESCO invests in the necessary sustainability measures, financed by Energiefonds Overijssel. We finance based on the payback capacity, meaning the owner only needs to make a limited investment themselves: the investment is repaid from the reduction in energy costs. In effect, we bring the costs and benefits of sustainability together within the ESCO. This provides the owner with a sustainable building, the user with a lower energy bill, and together we move the energy transition forward. <\/p>\n

Minimal distraction<\/span><\/strong>
\nWhen an owner has a sustainability goal, we help realize it with as little distraction from their core business as possible. A school principal primarily wants teachers in the classroom. A hospital director wants to provide quality care. They do not want to have to worry about the performance of solar panels or charging stations in the parking lot. Energiefonds Overijssel arranges the appropriate financing and also has a broad network of advisors and installers. These can help property owners from A to Z to realize their sustainability goals. <\/p>\n

Relief program for housing corporations
\n<\/span><\/strong>We are developing a special relief program for housing corporations, which we will present next year. We want to demonstrate that making real estate sustainable can go hand in hand with reducing total housing costs, without needing to be a capital-rich housing corporation. With this program, we want to inspire directors of housing corporations to pursue further sustainability while helping their tenants lower their energy bills. <\/p>\n

Sustainability during renovation<\/span><\/strong>
\nRenovation is not a requirement, but it is a logical moment to implement sustainability measures. In this video<\/a>, you can see how the Stichting Openbaar Primair Onderwijs van Twente was able to make 9 affiliated primary schools more sustainable with the help of Energiefonds Overijssel. This project is a good example of how we can realize sustainable new construction and also help thoroughly modernize existing buildings. When you consider that there are over 700 school buildings in Overijssel, of various sizes and ages, there are still many opportunities there. <\/p>\n

Fulfilling goals<\/span><\/strong>
\nFinally, I would like to take this opportunity to urge all property owners in Overijssel: do you have a sustainability goal? Let us know! It is such a shame if the desire to become sustainable fails due to a lack of capacity or knowledge, while the capital and manpower are ready. We can provide input on many matters and create a business model. We are working on a one-stop shop for real estate, but we can already help in all areas to realize that goal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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