The sustainable home solutions market received a boost with news that GoodLeap has exceeded $10 billion in funding for residential solar and sustainable improvement loans, writes Fiona Keating
Finance company GoodLeap is pushing ahead in the ESG market with a $10 billion dollar tranche of money that will go towards financing sustainable home solutions.
“For the first time ever, there is an alignment of interest and opportunity in our sector. Consumers are embracing sustainability while often saving money, installers are gaining purpose while growing their profits.
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“Financial institutions are deploying record amounts of capital into responsible, carbon-reducing solutions,” said Hayes Barnard, founder, chairman and CEO of GoodLeap. “In our ecosystem, everybody wins.”
Eco homes can sell for 10% more and 13 days faster than non-sustainable properties, according to research by PRDNationwide and the Queensland University of Technology.
Eco friendly range of goods more desirable
GoodLeap, one of the US’s major digital marketplaces for sustainable home solutions produces more than 20 products including solar panels, battery storage, smart home devices and energy efficient windows.
The company has exceeded $4.8 billion in financing for sustainable home solutions in 2021.
Its financing technology is used by 18,000 industry professionals who use GoodLeap’s digital tools to finance sustainable home solutions, bundling many eco products in a single loan.
Sustainable housing solutions
Tanguy Serra, President and Chief Investment Officer for GoodLeap said: “We designed our end-to-end open software platform around simple fundamentals: speed, transparency, and a frictionless user experience. Historically, it would have taken hours to sell a sustainable home product using pamphlets and credits cards.
“Today, it takes a few minutes with GoodLeap technology – from the convenience of a phone or tablet. Leveraging best-in-class software will enable us to accelerate the adoption of solutions needed to address our environmental crisis.”
Addressing the 2020 agenda
An increasing number of property owners are seeking to live more sustainably in their homes. Sustainable home solutions and upgrades represents an estimated $430 billion annual market in the US.
Barratt Homes, the UK’s largest housebuilder has set new targets to reduce carbon emissions. New home designs will be net zero carbon from 2030 and by 2040, 100% of its electricity will be renewable by 2025.
The house builder published targets for reducing carbon emissions in the industry to combat climate change. Using solar-assisted generators, will drive down plant emissions on site and improve the energy credentials of its buildings.
Barratt has also set a new target to ensure its new standard house types will be net zero carbon by 2030. This will be achieved by using new green technology.
Another target that Barratt has committed to is purchasing 100% of its operational electricity from renewable sources by 2025.
Just under half of the electricity it already purchases is from renewables and achieving the new 100% target will help it to reduce emissions by a further 3,300 tonnes of carbon.
David Thomas, chief executive of Barratt Developments, said: “We are committed to adapting our business to support the low carbon economy which the UK is building. These new targets further demonstrate our commitment to take responsibility for our share of carbon emissions and to play our part in combatting climate change.”
Addressing sustainable development goals
The built environment is directly responsible for 25% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Renovating the UK’s 30 million existing buildings is a key challenge in reaching net zero carbon by 2050.
According to the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), as soon as the pandemic took hold, the concept of ‘building back better’ and a green recovery went to the top of the political agenda.
The Green Homes Grant scheme fell victim to poor implementation and lack of ongoing support from HMT, in what was ultimately “a major disappointment”, UKGBC stated.
The council are pushing for policies including a Future Homes and Buildings Standards, energy efficiency in commercial buildings, major planning reform and the Environment Bill.
“The UK is legally bound to deliver net zero carbon emissions across the economy by 2050. With the built environment responsible for around a quarter of the UK’s carbon footprint, our buildings have a clear role to play,” said Simon McWhirter, Director of Communications, Policy & Places at UKGBC.
“Building renovation can deliver a triple win for local communities – not only can it deliver significant carbon reductions, but it can also boost local economies through job creation as well as deliver health and wellbeing benefits through improving the quality of our homes – making them warmer, more comfortable and cheaper to run.
“Through optimising the use of high-quality impact data, this framework seeks to support local government in tracking the effectiveness of renovation schemes and ultimately scale up the many benefits wide-scale renovation can bring to communities.”
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