CCI Partners With ESCOs To Shrink Carbon Footprints

n June 2008, officials from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) gathered at the Denver Convention Center to make a landmark announcement: The two organizations had agreed on model language that would make it easier to execute performance contracts in commercial buildings. The documents would be released to the industry for free.

The goal of the agreement, reached cooperatively with some of the nation’s largest energy service companies, was to use performance contracting to reduce the carbon footprint of commercial real estate.

For all the excitement about the announcement, the timing couldn’t have been worse. A few months later, the real estate industry became ensnarled in the global financial crisis. End of story for the new contract documents? Not quite.