 Nov. 13, 2008 - Wells Fargo says it has upped its financing of LEED-certified building projects from $1 billion to $2 billion since May 2007.
Over the last 18 months, the company says it has increased the number of LEED buildings it has financed by 125% to include a cold storage facility, data center, a community center, along with schools, offices, mixed-use, industrial, retail, and multifamily buildings.
"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."
Of the buildings financed by Wells Fargo, 28% are LEED-rated, 37% are silver, 21% are gold and 9% are platinum, the highest rating available. The company is also one of the first to be pre-certified for LEED for New Construction. Its new banking stores will use about 20% less energy and 40% less water than conventional buildings of the same type.
According to the U.S.Green Business Council, buildings are responsible for 39% of CO2 emissions in the U.S. However LEED buildings consume half the energy of conventional buildings. As energy costs become more volatile green building design is increasingly more attractive to developers and tenants. Last year U.S. architectural firms reported making a combined $1.74 billion from green design projects alone. |
