Website to aid funding for greener buildings

ClimateWorks Australia in partnership with Sustainable Melbourne Fund today launched a new interactive website providing building owners and tenants with a clear overview of Environmental Upgrade Finance (EUF) for sustainable building upgrades, and resources to help them understand and access this attractive form of finance.

ClimateWorks Australia’s Project Manager, Eli Court said the BetterBuildingFinance.com.au website was part of a public engagement program to raise awareness of how businesses can use EUF to undertake sustainable upgrades to their buildings.

Mr Court said the new website was easy to use and enabled building owners, tenants and service providers to compare the advantages of using EUF for financing a building upgrade to using a traditional loan.

“The website includes example business cases for building upgrade projects in a range of real buildings across Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales and an online calculator to show building owners and tenants how this type of financial arrangement could work in their building,” he said.

One of the example business cases was for a newly acquired commercial office asset in North Sydney. The new owners plan to upgrade the building to retain existing tenants, attract new tenants, improve yields and increase the asset value in the medium term.

The business case showed that using EUF, a significant upgrade including efficient lighting, new heating and cooling systems and solar PV could be undertaken at no upfront cost to the owner, delivering an improved working environment and almost $40,000 in annual energy savings which can help pay off the capital. The low 15-year fixed interest rate combined with tenant contributions of 80% of the energy savings towards the repayments would enable a major upgrade to be undertaken with a net annual finance cost to the owner of less than $9000.

“The existing tenants would still benefit from energy cost savings of almost $8000 annually, along with improvements to the lighting and heating and cooling performance of their workplace,” Mr Court said.

The launch of the website coincides with the recent introduction of legislation in the Victorian Parliament to make EUF available to all Victorian local government areas. EUF has been available in the City of Melbourne and five local government areas in New South Wales, with legislation drafted for South Australia and interest from a number of other regions.

“ClimateWorks welcomes the Victorian legislation and looks forward to its passage into law. ClimateWorks has long advocated for mechanisms like this to help unblock barriers to cost-effective measures that can save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mr Court.

Mr Court said EUF is designed specifically for building upgrades that deliver energy, waste or water efficiency or increase renewable energy, and can provide a better finance option for many building owners.

Originally published as Website to aid funding for greener buildings