GCPF, Thinkstep and SGS join forces to promote EDGE certifications for green buildings
The Global Climate Partnership Fund, Thinkstep and SGS have signed a framework agreement to incorporate the IFC EDGE certification scheme for green buildings into the Fund’s Technical Assistance offer.
This will allow the Fund’s Partner Institutions to easily assess the eligibility of their projects in the construction sector using the IFC EDGE standard. To achieve the EDGE standard, a building must be at least 20% more efficient compared to the country baseline in three categories: energy, water and embodied energy in materials. These criteria are aligned with the project eligibility criteria of the Fund.
According to the World Green Building Council, buildings and construction account for 40% of the world GHG emissions, and with the growing population, infrastructure projects will only increase in the future with more than USD 95 trillion expected in needed investments in the sector. The business opportunity is there, but the involvement of the financial sector is needed.
«Fighting climate change requires fast and innovative solutions. Our partnership with Thinkstep and SGS will allow to us to easily assess and certificate the energy savings attributed to green buildings financed with GCPF simplifying the reporting process for our partners. »
Antoine Prédour – Head of GCPF
«GCPF is leading the way for investors to better engage with green buildings and energy efficiency. EDGE is a powerful tool to quantify resource efficiency and makes it transparent and straightforward to see the impact of investments. We are very excited to launch this program with GCPF and we hope this framework will serve as a model for the entire investor community. »
Thomas Saunders – EDGE Program Director at thinkstep
The advantages of financing green buildings are clear, including lower construction risks and lower mortgage default risk as the utility costs are reduced, making cash available to repay the loan.
In this partnership, SGS will perform the required audits and Thinkstep will issue the certificates after reviewing the outcome of the audits. This one-stop solution also makes the certification process easier for the end-clients of our partner institutions.
A strong network of EDGE experts around the world are also available to give additional support, if needed, to register the project and clarify any questions during the certification process.
