Show Notes
Brad Docker & John Coe
Bio
Bradford H. Dockser is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Green Generation. Founded in 2011, GreenGen transforms the built environment through its visionary end-to-end approach to innovation and solutions that integrate energy, real estate, technology, and capital markets to Operate in the Green.
GreenGen helps its clients profitably transition to a zero-carbon world across all asset types. GreenGen’s net-zero carbon strategies are implemented by a team that includes mechanical, electrical, lighting, and environmental engineers, PhDs, tradesmen, as well as real estate and finance experts.
Throughout two decades of real estate investing, Brad was a Principal with MacFarlane Partners and the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Starwood Capital Europe and Starwood Capital Asia overseeing operations in each region.
Brad began his career with JMB Realty, then the largest US real estate firm, and later with CRI, then the largest owner of multifamily residential properties, where he oversaw the creation of Capital Apartment Properties REIT (CAPREIT).
Brad received an A.B. cum laude in Economics and an MBA, both from Harvard University. Brad serves as a Global Governing Trustee of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) and is on the Global Advisory Board for ULI’s Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance. He previously served as the Chair of ULI’s Redevelopment and Reuse Product Council and founded ULI Washington’s Sustainability Initiative. He is a Non-executive Director of London-based Conduit Capital and a member of The Economic Club of Washington DC, US Green Building Council, and International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP). Brad is a mentor for MetaProp (NY), a CRETech Leadership Board member, and Board Observer for Senseware and Datakwip. He also was Founding Director of the Greater Washington Exploratory Committee, DC’s bid committee for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
Show Notes
- GreenGen has become one of the leading energy solutions providers. Transition to low carbon future and help clients to execute to realize both a financial and climate return. (6:10)
- Team is predominantly engineers to address energy savings and climate change mitigation
- His specific role- He was co-founder with his wife, Debbie, and Ric Sandoval (8:15)
Early Years and Education
- Son of Bill Dockser who was Housing Commissioner at HUD during Nixon Administration (9:20)
- His Dad created programs for affordable housing at HUD- Section 8 Program (10:00)
- Left Federal Gov. and joined Kaufman & Broad from 1972-74 working with Eli Broad in Los Angeles (10:50)
- Founded CRI in 1974 to develop affordable housing in DC (12:20)
- Moved from Boston in 1968 to join the Nixon Administration under George Romney (12:45)
- CRI– Affordable Housing leader (13:45)
- Founded CRIIMI MAE (14:20)
- Mom was a stay at home Mom (14:30)
- She raised him when his Dad was in law school at Yale
- She was a “strong lady” (15:10)
- Was proud of the culture at CRI (15:40)
- Seeded other companies (15:50)
- CAPREIT
- CW Capital (16:00)
- Attended BCC High School– Unique that it is a “city school” (16:30)
- Not just diplomats…broad cultural mix there
- Attended Harvard University after a deferral to play soccer in Europe (18:20)
- Went to Bristol England and was with the Bristol Rovers team that was “relegated” from the Premier League (18:45)
- Only American on team (20:20)
- Played soccer at Harvard (21:00)
- Friendships of team sports there have lasted his whole life (21:15)
- Team sports ethos carries through (21:45)
- Discussed the image of “Ted Lasso” on the reality of English Soccer (22:45)
- Diverse classmates at Harvard (24:30)
- Thesis about affordable housing policy (25:30)
JMB Realty
- Joined JMB Realty in Chicago (27:30)
- One of the largest real estate companies in the US at the time (27:50)
- Syndicators prior to 1986- “Carlisle Funds”- broker/dealer capital (28:00)
- Luminaries that started there
- John Schrieber & John Krukal left to start Blackstone (28:50)
- Barry Sternlicht (29:00)
- People were the success there (30:10)
- In Acquisitions group (30:30)
- George Carras was there and came to DC to run the office here with Brad’s wife, Debbie (31:20)
Harvard Business School
- Back to Harvard Business School after two years at JMB (32:10)
- Went there to learn more about business operations (33:00)
- Bill Poorvu prevented him from taking the Real Estate course there (33:15)
- Generalist program
- Most impressive people from the military (34:15)
CRI
- Came back to CRI (his Dad’s company) after leaving HBS to work (35:10)
- Reference to the movie “Sliding Doors” (35:30)
- Learned quite a bit at CRI about housing (36:45)
- Strategic initiatives- raising capital from Asia (37:00)
- Worked on multifamily financing business and was in the midst of forming CAPREIT and go public (37:30)
- UPREIT structure (38:00)
- Apollo acquired it instead of going public (38:20)
- Acting CFO of CAPREIT and wanted to leave after its sale (38:45)
Asia Multi Strategy Fund
- Went to Asia to operate a fund of funds for real estate investment in Asia (39:20)
- Currency devaluation in SE Asia caused the fund to end (40:15)
Starwood Capital Asia
- Barry Sternlicht called him in 1996 to start the Starwood Capital’s international business (41:00)
- Looked at NPLs in Asia to invest- Distressed buildings in Japan initially (41:30)
- Sansiri– Acquired it and he joined their board in Thailand (42:20)
- Entity to acquire the NPLs in Thailand
- Commuted from US to Asia for almost a decade (43:20)
- Offices in Thailand, Singapore and Japan (43:45)
- Now they have 4,000 employees and one of the leading real estate companies in Singapore (44:20)
- Lessons from foreign experience (44:50)
- Four years building the Starwood business in Asia (45:15)
- Went to Europe subsequently (45:30)
- Cites German negotiations as being efficient whereas the Italian agreement took much longer and it was not efficient (45:50)
- Don’t write on a business card in Japan (47:00)
- Thailand and Japan had different cultures (47:30)
- Travel was unbelievable and was taxing on his family unless they moved (48:20)
- Barry Sternlicht’s travel gave him insights (49:30)
MacFarlane Partners
- Joined MacFarlane Partners in DC (50:30)
- Victor MacFarlane hired him to invest in the DC market
- Ten people on team here
- Direct real estate program
- Emerging Manager funds
- Jair Lynch was one of their first investments (52:00)
- He and his wife, Debbie, chaired the World Cup in DC in 1994 (52:20)
- Athletic Council was one of the first to get involved in an Olympics bid for Washington DC (52:50)
- John Green worked for him (55:20)
- Confluence of situations caused him to break away from MacFarlane Partners in 2009 (56:10)
GreenGen
- Started looking at the energy savings (bottom half of the income statement) to increase value for properties (57:20)
- Technology was expanding to address these issues
- Researched to find out about energy savings opportunities for major companies (58:40)
- Recognized that there was a business opportunity (59:10)
- Founded GreenGen in 2011 (59:30)
- Prior to the “climate change” crisis emerged (59:50)
- Purpose to help people create value with cutting energy costs with the right message to the investment community (1:00:20)
- Achieve both energy savings and climate improvement (1:01:15)
- Operate globally today- projects in 18 countries today (1:02:15)
- Working with world’s leading investors (1:02:40)
- Learn building science with financial acumen (1:03:00)
- Accentuate value creation (1:03:30)
- Asset level interventions are critical to achieve the outcomes (1:03:50)
- Cites Homeland Security project to upgrade lighting on the US-Mexico border for security (1:04:30)
- Business proposition (1:06:45)
- Evolution of strategy to implementation (1:06:50)
- Most DDQs have 100 pages on strategy- GreenGen helps companies accomplish these goals for ESG (1:07:10)
- Drives value of assets and helps translate toward avoiding the carbon taxes being imposed by jurisdictions internationally (1:08:00)
- Two stakeholders historically, but now it is multiple stakeholders (more than a dozen) (1:09:15)
- Align with values on achieving ESG goals (1:09:50)
- Multiple use cases of different asset classes (1:10:20)
- Data Centers are difficult to assist in energy savings or using excess heat (1:10:40)
- Driver of renewable energy market in Northern Virginia (1:11:45)
- Leveraging relationships to build their entire business so no real need for separate marketing efforts (1:12:45)
- Ask people to give them a chance (1:13:40)
- Real estate community co-invest considerably and he gets many referrals from other investor/owners (1:14:15)
- Staff is “client facing” all the time and are always marketing (1:14:50)
- Differentiation from competition- Some of them work together with them one one job and competes on another (1:15:40)
- Small subset of people that both strategize and deliver outcomes (1:16:40)
- Projects usually are tailored to meet capital events (1:17:15)
Climate Change and Real Estate Markets
- Regulations are now creating a higher bar than traditional property condition reports (1:18:30)
- ESG and climate impact value more now than ever before (1:19:10)
- The Carbon Almanac by Seth Godin (1:19:50)
- Bill Gates’ book (1:20:45)
- Citation from Nathan Myrvhold about climate change:
- “Well, here’s the problem about climate change. So suppose that we panic one day, when we say, “Right; from tomorrow onward, there will be no more emissions.” Well, unfortunately, the chemistry and physics of climate change [are] not very forgiving. So when you emit CO2, it stays in the atmosphere for a really long time—tens of thousands of years. And people argue, but you wouldn’t be totally wrong by saying there was a 20,000-year lifespan. Now that’s the same as never from a human life [perspective]. So, turns out, if you stopped all emissions on day one, the climate [would] continue to drift upwards for about 100 years. I’ve written a bunch of papers on global warming; I’ve done this calculation. Other people have done this calculation. You can quibble as to whether it’s 85 years or 110 years, but it’s something in that range. Then it’ll slowly start going down. It will take 145 years for it to equal the same temperature on the day that you panicked, shut it off. And that was assuming you did it instantly.” (1:21:40)
- Brad disagrees with this premise. We should continue with incremental changes. (1:22:15)
- Deploy technologies today and use technologies of the future then, as well (1:23:30)
- Geotechnical innovations are outside their scope…they are focused at the building level only (1:26:00)
- Earth is a complex system (1:27:00)
- Crisis is everything…all of the above (1:27:40)
- Nuclear energy (1:28:00)
- Lights being extinguished to save energy (1:28:20)
- Adapting to energy conservation and carbon usage (1:29:00)
- Small but manageable window to address climate change (1:30:00)
- Need to address the value attributable to the changes in costs and insurance (1:30:30)
- Insurance issues (1:30:45)
- Meeting recently with insurance companies and FEMA to discuss climate change management (1:31:30)
- Carriers are leaving the market thereby lowering risk diversification and higher premiums (1:32:30)
- Level of commitment from a broad level of stakeholders to make changes (1:33:30)
- Real Estate Markets (1:34:15)
- His business is sound regardless of market conditions, as the properties will be better if energy impacts are made to buildings (1:34:30)
- All major cities are reiterating requirements about carbon neutrality (1:34:50)
- Energy consumption moderation with less usage of office space- granular about where space is being used (1:36:00)
- Group that invests in new technologies for energy conservation and raising capital to invest in sensors, IOT, water technologies, etc. (1:37:00)
- Regional malls represent large tracts of land with mixed use density potential to give more balance in energy loads with timing different among the uses (1:38:20)
Company Culture
- Company Team (1:41:00)
- Family like culture (1:41:15)
- Hired around the world (1:41:30)
- Technical expertise and “the right personality”- team players (1:41:45)
- Hiring on Zoom, yet a good onboarding process of six months (1:42:15)
- Engineers assess technical proficiency (1:42:45)
- Care about the value that each person brings to the company and have client facing experience (1:43:15)
- Realizes to grow the business he needs to rely on his team (1:43:50)
- Initial Strategy was to take a chance on energy conservation for value where the world has come to them with policies (1:44:30)
- Looking for creative and technically proficient people (1:45:40)
Personal
- Built a business important for society and transition to Net Zero world (1:46:20)
- Oldest son works for him (1:47:15)
- Family is very important
- Business addressing the climate is “giving back” (1:47:50)
- Win- Business is growing and coming to them faster than expected (1:48:20)
- Exciting place to work by being on the front edge (1:49:00)
- Surprise- More clients are asking him if they can grow to meet their needs (1:49:45)
- Advice to 25 yr. old self- pay more attention at HBS (1:51:30)
- “Ministry for the Future” book- Views of the unborn (1:52:45)
- Billboard statement- “Recognize that the future matters!” (1:53:15)
Postscript
- Colin Madden shares his perspectives
- Reflects on Brad’s experiences
- Market has come to him
- ESG sections are now 100+ pages long
- Being at the right place at the right time
- International relationships
- Courage of entrepreneurship from his father
- Goes to work for the best firm in real estate- JMB Realty
- Starwood and MacFarlane experience
- Look at expenses instead of income in focusing on energy and green energy focus
- Approach was unique from a value add perspective
- NetZero taskforce- complex process
- Understanding of NOI and payback for their clients
- Communication and understanding of the issue- aspirational yet not mandating
- TearIng down building and rebuilding is not the most efficient method- reusing more efficiently is the best way
- We’re learning and good problem solvers as a species
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