Urban Land Institute Features CenterPoint’s Inaugural ‘Green Bond’ Issuance
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Posted By Staff Writers On January 7, 2021 @ 12:25 pm
Urban Land Institute featured the closing of CenterPoint’s first-ever “Green Bond” issuance, CenterPoint Landing at Oakland Seaport and Vice President of ESG & Corporate Affairs Elena Daniel in the article, “A Tipping Point for Green Bonds? Opening Up Global Capital to Sustainable Investing.”
Read what ULI wrote about the emerging importance of green bonds in helping industrial developers like CenterPoint fund projects that have a positive impact on the environment and the communities in which we operate:
The appetite for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing continues to soar, with record inflows amid the pandemic. Real estate firms are now offering more opportunities for those investors to place their capital. “Green bonds” in particular have risen in popularity dramatically over the decade, from what ULI considered an emerging trend a few years ago to a mainstream investment opportunity in 2020.
Green bonds are standard bonds with specified proceeds going to fund projects that have positive environmental or climate benefits, or both. According to the Climate Bonds Initiative, the majority of green bonds issued are “use of proceeds” or asset-linked: proceeds from these bonds are earmarked for green projects but are backed by the issuer’s entire balance sheet.
The Value of “Green” over Traditional Bonds
Green bonds have some additional transaction costs compared with traditional bonds because issuers must track, monitor, and report on use of proceeds. However, many issuers, especially repeat issuers of green bonds, offset this initial cost with a variety of benefits, including that green bonds:
- highlight their green assets/business;
- provide a positive marketing story;
- diversify their investor base because they can now attract ESG specialist investors looking for greater impact;
- join up internal teams to do an investor roadshow—the environmental team with investor relations and other business lines;
- and opens the potential for buyers to pay a premium for the “green” label on the bond.
Real estate professionals shared some of the benefits their firms see from issuing green bonds:
Elena Daniel, vice president of ESG and corporate affairs for CenterPoint Properties: “Our best-in-class corporate teams are aligned with our sustainable vision that combines efficient, modern, high-throughput buildings with long-term sustainability to benefit our customers and the communities we work in.”
About CenterPoint Properties
CenterPoint is an industrial real estate company made up of dedicated thinkers, innovators and leaders with the creativity and know-how to tackle the industry’s toughest challenges. And it’s those kinds of problems—the delicate, the complex, the seemingly-impossible— that we relish most. Because with an agile team, substantial access to capital and industry-leading expertise, those are exactly the kinds of problems we’re built to solve.
