Making big building ESG profitable, with Correlate
Big buildings can drive big change, but only if we give them big carrots.
With a lack of mandates and high upfront costs, big commercial building clean energy projects often need help to get off the ground. Think stadiums, warehouses, hospitals––big buildings–––that currently receive no incentives to stop burning the dirtiest, cheapest energy available to them. The way to prevent this? Put a dollar sign on environmental benefits and bring businesses a deal they can’t refuse. We spoke to Correlate’s CEO and President, Todd Michaels, to learn how Correlate is partnering with WattCarbon to incentivize commercial building decarbonization and ensure clean energy goals are met.
The big idea
When it comes to the energy efficiency movement in commercial property, let’s face it, it could be doing better. Today, nearly 90% of commercial properties are behind from an efficiency standpoint and virtually none of them have renewable energy on-site.
As a whole, the industry is fragmented. That’s because decarbonizing big buildings is really, really hard. Each building is different and needs different solutions. It's expensive. It’s disruptive. And at the end of the day, the end user gets the same old hot water.
Todd Michaels and Correlate are changing that.
Correlate simplifies big building decarbonization by encompassing distributed energy resources (DERs), including solar, heat pumps, EV charging infrastructure, battery storage, and energy efficiency, into one streamlined process. Things like helping to decarbonize NFL Stadiums across the US, and setting up the largest rooftop solar site on the iconic MGM Mandalay in Las Vegas.
These are not flash-in-the-pan projects. These are big-hitting, big carbon-reducing initiatives, wiping out tons and tons of carbon emissions.
Michaels’ belief? That “big building ESG and profitability no longer need to be at odds.”
“Big building ESG and profitability no longer need to be at odds.”
What’s Correlate’s approach?
In a nutshell: Correlate is a portfolio-scale real estate platform that's focused on helping large-scale non-residential property owners achieve their sustainability goals.
Their approach? “When it comes to big buildings, it’s not just about throwing up solar panels on the roof and hoping for the best; it’s about looking at the data and pulling long-term plans for green building upgrades and maintenance, and sourcing the financing for that,” Michaels explains.
How does it work?
Okay, picture this: there's a hotel development happening downtown in Washington DC. Owners are looking for capital to build the facility, and let's say $5 million of that capital is for renewable equipment. Correlate has an investment facility to enable investors to put those funds into the project and take equity, but then they also go on to facilitate the development, construction, and installation of that clean energy infrastructure, accelerating investment into clean energy and deploying know-how to make these projects work.
For example, the Correlate team wiped off 8.2MW from the MGM Mandalay by helping build the largest rooftop solar project west of the Mississippi.
Similarly, at an envelope manufacturing plant in Illinois, Correlate helped create one of the state's largest rooftop solar power facilities. A 908-KW solar project is estimated to supply 20-25% of the facility's overall energy requirements. Watch the walkthrough in Geneva, Illinois.
Or in New Jersey, Correlate fitted rooftop solar on the U.S. headquarters of Kyocera, which over the next 20 years, will remove 5,368 tons of CO2.
And alongside EnerSys in Philadelphia, Correlate has created the largest behind-the-meter corporate headquarters solar installations in the United States, set to total 5.2 MW.
What’s the scale?
Commercial buildings consume over 50% of the electricity used in the US––and on average, 30% of their energy use is wasted. Decarbonizing these buildings isn’t a nice to have––it’s a climate imperative.
Commercial buildings consume over 50% of the electricity used in the US––and on average, 30% of their energy use is wasted.
What’s the hold-up?
Since big building decarbonization is more complex, costly, and customizable than regular residential projects, more funding is needed upfront to get sign-off. The energy savings will typically pay for the improvements, but either way, bills accrue slowly, and projects can feel risky without upfront financial support.
How WattCarbon helps fund and finance these sorts of projects
Incentivizing building owners by putting a dollar sign on the environmental benefits of big building decarbonization projects is an answer to these challenges. Clean energy corporate buyers can partner with WattCarbon to ensure that the best possible deals are put on the table for big building owners. By valuing the environmental benefits of building decarbonization projects, WattCarbon and Correlate can get costly upgrade projects to add up on paper and pencil out in reality.
This takes the complexity out of clean energy decisions: turning a climate decision into a business decision.
The future of sustainable commercial buildings
Beyond retrofitting, Correlate imagines a future where big buildings––hospitals, stadiums, hotels, offices––have sustainability baked into their design, with distributed energy resources accounting for the lion’s share of their energy input.
As Michaels says, “helping companies make the business case for sustainability comes from the top. By putting a price on environmental benefits, WattCarbon is changing the game when it comes to incentivizing companies to take meaningful, high-impact climate action that not only cuts emissions but inspires ESG leadership for the real estate industry at large.”
McGee Young, CEO and Founder at WattCarbon says, “big buildings can drive big change, but only if we give them big carrots. Correlate’s smart approach to energy upgrades is getting stadiums, warehouses, and hotels up and down the country to go electric and tap into distributed energy resources. WattCarbon is thrilled to be partnering to further sweeten the deal and accelerate these vital big building upgrades.”
“Big buildings can drive big change, but only if we give them big carrots.”
Get involved
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This article is part of WattCarbon’s Every Watt-Hour Tells a Story series, spotlighting how WattCarbon partners are deploying distributed clean energy to achieve climate impact, here and now.