Building Retrofit Stocks

Why It Matters

We can reduce emissions from old buildings.

According to the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, buildings and construction account for 38% of global CO2 emissions and 35% of total energy use. Buildings use this energy to heat, cool, and light the spaces inside, as well as to power appliances and machinery. As much as 80% of the energy consumed is wasted - lights and electronics are left on unnecessarily and gaps in the buildings' envelope allow air to seep in and out.

Equipping new construction with building automation systems is one way of addressing these energy inefficiencies. Another is by retrofitting existing buildings. Retrofitting is the renovation of building components (including building envelope, appliances, and controls) to integrate high-efficiency solutions. 

Retrofitting has big benefits.

Retrofitting is a well-understood practice, and good building performance data is making it increasingly effective. The payback on retrofits comes relatively fast, at five to seven years on average. Energy savings from retrofits are huge: If $279 billion is invested in retrofitting residential, commercial, and institutional buildings in the United States, it can yield more than $1 trillion in energy savings over ten years. In the process, more than 3.3 million cumulative job years of employment would be created across the country, and US emissions will be cut by almost 10%.

Here are the companies making it happen.

We need companies that offer building retrofit solutions to quickly expand. In the Climate Index, we take all of the companies that provide retrofit-related products and services that are traded on US stock markets. We exclude penny stocks whose share prices were lower than $0.50 in our last update. Finally, we also exclude companies that derive more revenue from fossil fuel-dependent business than they do from building retrofitting.

If you are a Carbon Collective member, you own all of these companies through the Climate Index.