This report investigates the market barriers and available solutions to dramatically increase the energy efficiency of buildings. Energy Efficiency in the Built Environment (EEBE) is a sector with an estimated market potential of $87 billion per year, and an equally substantial opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2010, the Carbon War Room launched the Green Capital Global Challenge (GCGC) to help cities around the world use innovative mechanisms to support energy efficiency in their built environments, thereby bringing capital, energy technologies, and jobs to their citizens in a sustainable and profitable way. Having concluded the GCGC, we are now, with this paper, able to share the insights we gained over the course of that Challenge with cities and building management groups around the world. We hope that this information will be used to stimulate new initiatives or accelerate existing initiatives in readers’ own cities.

The report is a collection of observed global best practices as they relate to finance, technology, and policy. Whether discussing San Francisco’s benchmarking ordinance, the UK’s Green Deal, or Melbourne’s 1200 Buildings program, this guide is meant to provide real estate owners, capital providers, entrepreneurs, and policy makers with a point of reference on how energy efficiency projects are currently working (or not) around the world. We also provide a selection of further resources to facilitate more in-depth research.