Gregory Kats

Gregory Kats
Gregory Kats
Born	(1959-07-14) July 14, 1959 Paris, France
Nationality	United States
Occupation	Venture Capital, Clean Technology
Known for	Green Building,[1] Energy Efficiency, Low Carbon Economy, Green Design Standards

Gregory H. Kats (born July 14, 1959) is an American businessman, environmentalist, and thought leader in the green economy sector. He is President of Capital E, a national clean energy advisory and venture capital firm. Previously, Kats served as a Managing Director at Good Energies,^[2] a billion-dollar global clean energy investor, and Director of Financing for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).^[3]

Work

Kats has played lead roles in developing the energy efficiency and green building industries, and is a long-time thought leader, innovator, and investor in the transition to a low carbon economy. A pioneer in the space, Kats led the creation of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP)^[2]; served as a key driver in the creation of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification and subsequent updates; and co-founded the country's first green bank.

He is President of Capital E, which works with cities, corporations, and financial institutions to design, scale, and implement clean energy and low carbon strategies.^[3] Capital E invests in early-stage clean tech and green firms.^[4] Kats is presently a driver in the campaign to revise LEED standards to require meaningful minimum carbon reductions for each level of LEED certification -- both for new LEED buildings and for LEED rating renewals.^[5] In 2018, he served as the lead author of a major report on the opportunity that cities have to invest in "smart surface technologies" as a means of both improving public health and delivering financial benefits.^[6]

Kats chairs the Congressionally established committee guiding the greening of 430,000 federal buildings,^[7] serves on the Mayor's Green Ribbon Committee guiding the greening of the District of Columbia,^[8] and served on the CO2toEE project steering committee. He is the author of Greening Our Built World, which was translated into Portuguese,^[9] and has published several dozen reports and articles in global journals and outlets (see Publications below).

Kats has served on the boards of a dozen clean energy companies including Blue Planet, which produces the first man-made carbon sequestering commercial product which was deployed in the build-out of San Francisco International Airport.^[10] He regularly testifies on clean energy green building and financial issues.

From 2005 to 2010, Kats was Managing Director of Good Energies,^[11] a multibillion-dollar global clean energy PE/VC fund, where he led investments in smart grid, energy efficiency, green materials, and green building. He then served as a partner in Clean Feet^[12], which funds innovative green energy and agricultural projects. Kats also served on a National Academy of Sciences board on strengthening U.S. global competitiveness.^[13] He was the Director of Financing for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy^[11] for five years under President Bill Clinton.

Federal Clean Energy Financing

In response to Congressional investigations in 2011 and 2012, Kats testified three times to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on issues directly related to controversial political issues, including green jobs, federal clean energy strategy, and the DOE loan guarantee controversies, which became issues for candidates in the 2012 United States Presidential Election.^[14] His congressional testimony highlighted the cost-effectiveness of clean energy stimulus funding and noted that the final loan default rate of the U.S. clean energy loan program would be less than half what the Office of Management and Budget had projected and budgeted for.^[15]

Kats' analysis indicated that the default rate on the $16.1 billion Energy Department loan portfolio is less than 3.6 percent, well below the Office of Management and Budget forecast of 12.85 percent, and he determined that the actual default rate will not get out of single digits.^[16] Citing the financial objectives and successes of the program to date, as well as the related employment and national security benefits, Kats concluded that the largest risk is that the DOE slows its loan guarantee program.^[17][18]

Energy and Green Design Standards

While at the U.S. Department of Energy, Kats recognized the challenge associated with enabling energy efficiency to become a more substantial industry. He played a lead role in developing and served as the Founding Chair of IPMVP. During his tenure, he built it into the international energy and water efficiency design and verification standard for more than $50 billion in building efficiency upgrades to date. It’s the design measurement verification basis for the modern energy efficiency industry and is required for all federal building efficiency upgrades.

Kats was a founder of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). He was the Principal Advisor in designing and establishing Enterprise Green Communities, the national low-income green design standard that has served as the design basis for over 50,000 housing units to date.^[19] He recently helped design the World Bank’s large new green building financing program.^[20]

Kats served as a leader in the creation of LEED and served on its steering committee for the first six years. During his tenure on the steering committee, he led the effort to establish minimum energy performance and subsequently led the push to reweight LEED around climate change. He also chaired the LEED Energy and Atmosphere Technical Advisory Group for its first five years and served as the founding chair of the national USGBC chapter.^[21]

Resilient Cities

For almost a decade, Kats has been driving the conversation about making the built environment – particularly in cities – resilient. He recently co-authored the report, “Delivering Urban Resilience,”^[22] which concluded that an investment in “smart surface technologies” would result in an estimated half a trillion dollars in net financial benefits nationally.^[23] The report was launched in partnership with the USGBC, National League of Cities, and American Institute of Architects, among others, and has received national attention. In 2014, Kats testified before the Israeli Cabinet about the opportunity for Israel to make large financial savings with health, security and strategic benefits by greening their buildings and infrastructure.^[14]

Awards

Kats has been widely recognized for his contributions to the green economy. In 2011, he was the recipient of the first U.S. Green Building Council President's Award, a lifetime achievement honor.^[24] Kats also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alliance to Save Energy in 2018.

Education

Kats earned an MBA from Stanford University and, concurrently, an MPA from Princeton University on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.^[25] He received his BA from the University of North Carolina with highest honors as a Morehead Scholar.^[26]

Personal

Kats lives with his wife and two of his three children in Washington, DC. A solar PV system powers his home and an electric hybrid car.

Publications

• "Greening Our Built World: Costs, Benefits and Strategies"
• "Greening America’s Schools: Costs and Benefits"
• "The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings"
• "Greenhouse warming: Comparative analysis of nuclear and efficiency abatement strategies" Energy Policy Volume 16, Issue 6, December 1988, Pages 538–561
• "The efficiency-renewable synergism" Energy Policy Volume 17, Issue 6, December 1989, Pages 614–616
• "Slowing global warming and sustaining development: The promise of energy efficiency" Energy Policy Volume 18, Issue 1, January–February 1990, Pages 25–33
• "Energy options for hungary a model for Eastern Europe" Energy Policy Volume 19, Issue 9, November 1991, Pages 855–868
• "The Earth Summit" Energy Policy Volume 20, Issue 6, June 1992, Pages 546–558
• "International greenhouse gas trading programs: a discussion of measurement and accounting issues" Energy Policy Volume 31, Issue 3, February 2003, Pages 211–224
• "Secondary Markets for Energy Efficiency", Energy Efficiency News and Views, May 1995.
• "Energy Efficiency as a Commodity: The Emergence of an Efficiency Secondary Market for Savings in Commercial Buildings”, ACEEE Summer Study Proceedings 1997.
• “The History and Lessons of Creating IPMVP”
• “Delivering Urban Resilience”

See also

• Renewable energy commercialization
• Hermann Scheer

References

External links

• "Capital E Company Website"