Green Finance Training Helps Real Estate Professionals Win More Green

San Francisco, CA, February 16, 2010 --(PR.com)-- San Francisco-based Galley Eco Capital announced the launch today of the ‘Competitive Edge’ professional education series, featuring four courses that teach green finance tools and techniques to real estate professionals. The seminars will take place starting on March 3, 2010 and will run through the end of May.

Sponsored by San Francisco law firm, Hanson Bridgettt, and the US Green Building Council – Northern California Chapter, the workshops are the first comprehensive delivery of green finance professional education for the real estate industry. “We see a real shortage of real estate professionals with the newest, most critical knowledge about financing and investing in green real estate, which leaves many real estate owners and developers unable to capture the greater economic and environmental value within green buildings as potential investments,” said Lisa Michelle Galley, Managing Principal of Galley Eco Capital. “Professionals with these skills are in high demand, given the fact that research confirms that green buildings are better performing investments,” she added.

The training courses provide real estate professionals with knowledge and skills to help their employers, clients and business partners with underwriting, legal issues, due diligence and the many other complex tasks that are vital to lending and investing in green real estate. They will also learn the essentials of financing for energy efficiency retrofits, an area of the real estate industry that is gaining great interest due to large funding commitments from the Obama Administration via the 2009 ARRA stimulus package.

In spite of the current economic downturn and real estate slump, industry interest in green buildings remains very strong. However, real estate professionals cannot find concise sources of information on green building investing because the area is still new to the industry. As a result, Galley Eco Capital designed the ‘Competitive Edge’ series to help professionals by consolidating the many pieces of currently fragmented knowledge into a convenient one-day format. So professionals acquire the new information they need in as little time as possible. The series includes:

Course 1, “Investment Analysis of Green Buildings”, covers green investment underwriting skills that help professionals to quickly use the USGBC’s LEED-rating system in their decision-making.
Course 2, “Financial Considerations of Existing Building Retrofits”, addresses the financial considerations related to energy efficiency retrofits, so that professionals can integrate the additional decision-making tools and analysis for making buildings more energy efficient.
Course 3, “Understanding and Communicating the Financial Case”, gives architects, engineers and sustainability consultants an overview of the real estate investment analysis process, stressing how to use this information to ‘go beyond first costs’ in their conversations with owners about their green design and construction choices.
Course 4, “Raising the Bar: Green Investment Fund Strategies”, walks the real estate senior executive through the business and legal aspects of assembling a portfolio of green property investments so that they can create more strategic advantages for their firms via creating pools of green building investments for the real estate market.

About Galley Eco Capital

Galley Eco Capital helps real estate investors, lenders and governments create maximum value with finance programs for sustainable development. Located in San Francisco, CA, the consultancy combines world-class expertise in the real estate, sustainability, energy, policy and capital sectors to deliver financial solutions that increase competitive advantage and ensure greater environmental and social impact.

Galley Eco Capital’s success in the market includes delivering traininings and presentations to hundreds of real estate investment professionals, as well as being recognized internationally for creating innovative green finance models for communities employing green building and alternative energy initiatives.

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