The desire for sustainability should not fail due to a lack of time or knowledge

Expert Blog – December 15, 2021

Joost Vlot is Investment Manager for Energiefonds Overijssel. His expertise is making real estate more sustainable. In this blog he describes how he helps real estate owners to fulfill sustainability wishes.

Isolation, generation and reuse
Making real estate more sustainable is primarily about insulation. After all, you don't have to buy or generate the energy you don't use. It also concerns energy generation and reuse. There are many ways and technologies to save energy. Heat recovery systems are very innovative, which make it possible to extract energy from air or water before it leaves the building. By helping owners to make their real estate more sustainable, we help Energiefonds Overijssel to achieve its objectives for the energy transition.

50 shades of green
Before I worked at ING bank. I translated my passion for sustainability into my search for possibilities to make our house and our neighborhood more sustainable. That is what I did and still do for 50 shades of green Assendorp, a foundation that encourages, advises and guides residents of the Zwolle neighborhood of Assendorp in taking sustainability measures. These measures come in many shapes and sizes, such as shared mobility, solar panels, floor insulation, waste separation, et cetera. Hence the name '50 shades…'.

Combination of work and passion
A job in impact investing allows me to combine my personal passion with my experience in the financial sector. That is how I ended up at StartGreen Capital. Here I am mainly involved in making real estate more sustainable for Energiefonds Overijssel. This primarly concerns existing buildings. Fortunately, there are already many sustainability standards for new construction; although we can also provide financing for that.

Win-win model
A major challenge, is that the owner is often not the user of the property. While the owner pays for the sustainability measures and the user has the direct benefit. A housing corporation, for example, usually has no direct interest in lower energy costs through sustainability, so why should they invest in it? Housing associations often want to keep rent costs manageable, which is a challenge with current energy rates. Fortunately, there is the possibility of partially reclaiming an investment from the tenants, in terms of a contribution to solar panels. Often this proves to be insufficient. Energiefonds Overijssel can propose options that make sustainability fully profitable.

For this we use, among other things, an ESCO model: an Energy Service Company. The ESCO invests in the necessary sustainability measures, financed by Energiefonds Overijssel. We finance on the basis of payback capacity, so the owner only needs to invest to a limited extent: the investment is paid back by the reduction in energy costs. By doing so, we bring the benefits and costs of sustainability together in the ESCO. This results in a sustainable building for the owner, a lower energy bill for the user and together we take the energy transition a bit further.

As little distraction as possible
Whenever an owner has a wish to make his real estate more sustainable, we help to realize this wish with as little distraction from his core business as possible. A school principal mainly wants to secure enough teachers. A hospital director wants to be able to provide good care. They don't want to worry about the performance of the solar panels or the charging stations in the parking lot. Energiefonds Overijssel helps with the appropriate financing and also has a wide network of advisors and installers. These can help property owners to realize their wish to become more sustainable.

Housing associations unburdening program
We are developing a special unburdening program for housing associations, that we will present next year. We want to show them that making real estate more sustainable can go hand in hand with lowering the total housing costs, within reach for less wealthy housing corporations. With this program we want to inspire directors of housing associations to become more sustainable, while helping their tenants to lower their energy bill.

Sustainability during renovation
Renovation is not a prerequisite, but it is a logical moment to make a buidling more sustainable. In this video you can see how the Stichting Openbaar Primair Onderwijs van Twente was able to make 9 affiliated primary schools more sustainable with the help of Energiefonds Overijssel. This project is a good example of how we can sustainably realize new construction while also helping to make existing buildings more sustainable. If you consider that there are more than 700 school buildings in Overijssel, of various sizes and ages, there are plenty opportunities for us.

Fulfill a wish
Lastly, I would like to take this opportunity to call upon all property owners in Overijssel: do you have a wish to make your real estate more sustainable? Let me know! It's such a shame if the desire to become more sustainable fails due to a lack of capacity or knowledge, while the capital and manpower are available. We can think along in many matters and create a business model. We are working on a one-stop shop for real estate; meanwhile, we can help in all areas to realize your wish.