Energy Saving News
Davos & Retrofitted Energy Efficiency
I am pleased to say that energy efficiency has been one of the topics on people’s minds at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week.
CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle, Colin Dyer, writes on his Davos Blog about the discussions when he chaired the Governors Meeting for Real Estate.
The meeting involved 50 senior people from the real estate, hotel and financial sectors and is of interest to all involved in energy saving.
Presentations were made and discussions started about the role of retrofitting energy efficiency into existing real estate.
The various presenters are all big hitters, CEO’s of several serious companies – as would be expected at this Davos meeting.
Dyer commented that the big problem about energy management and carbon emissions from real estate is not so much building new properties effectively but retrofitting energy efficiency into the vast majority of existing commercial property, which will still be with us in 2050.
Dyer reported on his blog the principal points made by the speakers:
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There is quick financial payback from investing in classic technologies.
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Building costs are 20 percent of the life-cycle energy costs of real estate, and therefore there are big benefits in lowering the cost of that 80 percent tail.
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LEED has become a very effective international marketing tool for building efficiency.
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There are big business opportunities in improving building efficiency.
- The world has to develop and implement ‘green leases’ to allow the benefits and costs of retrofitting to be shared between owners and occupiers.
Dyer observed that the appetite for sustainability hasn’t dampened during the past year and in fact seems stronger, primarily driven by the real cost savings potential of energy efficiency.
Friday 29th January 2010
