Fifth Wall, the venture capital firm focused on technologies for the global real estate industry, has launched a global mural campaign to raise awareness about the real estate industry’s culpability in the climate crisis. The installations will be placed in major cities to align with key sustainability conferences and events around the world. The campaign started in New York, timed with ClimateWeek, followed by additional installations in Los Angeles, California, then in Glasgow, Scotland, aligned with COP26, the UN Climate Change conference.
The real estate industry is the world’s largest contributor to the climate crisis, accounting for approximately 40% of global energy, greenhouse gases and raw materials, the firm noted. While other industries have committed billions of dollars in technology to directly address climate change, the real estate industry has historically underinvested in the climate tech necessary to decarbonize the $9 trillion real estate industry. According to Morgan Stanley, rough estimates show that the global real estate industry needs over $20 trillion to decarbonize, yet over the past 10 years, the real estate industry has only invested approximately $95 million into climate tech.
Fifth Wall launched its Climate Tech Fund as a solution to help the real estate industry make meaningful investments into critical climate technology for decarbonizing. With its target of $500 million, Fifth Wall’s Climate Tech Fund represents the first time the real estate industry has come together, collectively and cooperatively, to help close this alarming funding gap and reduce the real estate industry’s outsized carbon footprint. The fund will represent one of the largest pools of capital ever assembled to support the technologies and solutions that can truly make a difference in the real estate industry.
The fund has raised over $140 million from major real estate players, including new investors such as Equity Residential, Hudson Pacific Properties and Kimco Realty Corporation, which joined existing investors Invitation Homes and Ivanhoé Cambridge. The firm also announced that Peter Gajdoš has joined as a Partner and will co-lead Fifth Wall’s Climate Tech Investment team.
The New York installation was created in collaboration with BBMG, a branding and social impact agency, and local muralist Steffi Lynn. The mural reads “Before we build on other planets, shouldn’t we clean up our own? Choose Earth. Invest in climate tech now.” Located at 11 Franklin Street in Brooklyn, New York’s Greenpoint neighborhood, the goal of the mural is to raise awareness of real estate’s role in the climate crisis and the need for significant investment into climate tech innovation. It encourages people to address the immediate issues Earth is facing, before stretching their reach to outer space.
