Read more: One year in – Fannie’s Green MBS program looks set to stay
These MBS are backed exclusively by loans funding newly constructed residential homes that are ENERGY STAR Certified (version 3.0 or higher). Laurel Davies, senior vice president of environmental, social, and governance at Fannie Mae, explained that Fannie’s green bond offerings are 20% more efficient than single-family homes built to standard building code.
“In our first year, we issued approximately $94 million in single-family green MBS. While that represents only a small part of our overall single-family business, we are still in the early stages, which is by design,” Davis said. “We started small, so we can develop this robust single-family green business over time to meet market demand. As our track record with multifamily green financing has shown, we can – and we intend to – leverage our scale and capacity to continue to build the green bond market through both our single-family and multifamily issuances.”
The goal, according to Davies, is to promote the growth of an active, global green bond market – one that supports more affordable and sustainable communities and reduces housing’s environmental impact.
“Our green bonds reflect Fannie Mae’s long-standing mission to ensure that affordable and stable housing is accessible and that innovative, high-quality green investment opportunities are available for fixed-income investors worldwide,” she said.