Financing for LEED Certified Buildings Increased

Wells Fargo & Co. has substantially increased its financing for green buildings.

Specifically, the bank doubled its lending for LEED-certified buildings since May 2007 from $1 billion to $2 billion. It increased the number of LEED buildings financed by 125 percent, expanded the number of states with buildings receiving loans from 11 to 19, and broadened the type of LEED buildings qualified for loans to include a cold storage facility, a data center, and a community center.

Of the buildings financed by Wells Fargo, 28 percent are LEED-rated, 37 percent are LEED silver, 21 percent are LEED gold, and 9 percent are LEED platinum — the highest rating available.

In addition, Wells Fargo is one of the first businesses to receive pre-construction LEED certification for new buildings. All future Wells Fargo banks will use about 20 percent less energy and 40 percent less water than conventional buildings of the same type.

"Our success is a result of doing business with experienced developers and investors," said Larry Chapman, head of Commercial Real Estate at Wells Fargo. "Current market conditions provide us with the opportunity to further demonstrate our unwavering commitment to our commercial real estate customers. Together we can achieve long-term value for our businesses and our society though the development of high performance, resource saving buildings."

USGBC President, CEO and Founding Chair Rick Fedrizzi said, "We applaud Wells Fargo's leadership efforts. Buildings are responsible for 39 percent of CO2 emissions in the U.S., which directly impacts global climate change - however LEED buildings consume half the energy of conventional buildings."

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/