Carlyle Group – Jennifer Le – 2012

Goals 

Jennifer Le spent her summer as The Carlyle Group’s first EDF Climate Corps fellow establishing a tailored program for Carlyle’s U.S. real estate investment funds. Her objective was to identify and capitalize on opportunities to create positive financial and environmental outcomes for select real estate assets across the portfolio.

Solutions 

Le developed a framework and implementation guide focused on energy efficiency strategies for Carlyle’s acquisition and asset management teams. The framework includes benchmarking of property energy usage using software tools; quantifying energy opportunities to build into pro-forma financial models; and incorporating strategies into Management Business Plans and Investment Committee Memoranda. In addition, Le’s program addresses how to both establish appropriate energy performance goals and utilize property management partners to implement, monitor and report the results of initiatives.

Potential Impact 

Le’s acquisition framework could be applied to certain new real estate acquisitions; the asset management framework could be applied to those properties in Carlyle’s real estate funds with the largest opportunities for improvement in energy efficiency.