Realizing Industry-specific Market Opportunities in a Cleaner Economy
Overview
In GLOBE Advisors’ 2012 West Coast Clean Economy study, five key sectors were identified as driving growth of the region’s clean economy. These sectors include: Environmental Protection and Sustainable Resource Management; Clean Energy Supply and Storage; Clean Transportation; Green Building and Energy Efficiency; and Knowledge and Support.
GLOBE’s expertise in conducting industry and market research and gathering market intelligence in these areas can help identify undiscovered opportunities in the domestic and global marketplace.
GLOBE’s experience includes developing sector profiles, identifying key trends, and assessing barriers and enablers that influence sector growth.
Benefits of a Clean Economy Sector Analysis
- Provides an accurate assessment of the sector and future potential growth trends under various scenarios;
- Provides an understanding of the products and services that have a competitive advantages in the marketplace (both domestic and international);
- Improves overall sector competitiveness, innovation, and productivity levels; and
- Allows governments and industry organizations to develop policies and strategies to address identified barriers and gaps that may exist within the sector.
How GLOBE Advisors Can Help
GLOBE’s suite of services in this area includes:
- Conducting in-depth quantitative and qualitative research specific to economic issues affecting the sector through targeted surveys, focus groups, and key informational interviews;
- Quantifying business and workforce opportunities within the sector using a value chain analysis approach;
- Gathering competitive market intelligence on domestic and international sector activities;
- Identifying important public policies, programs, and financial drivers for clean economy growth;
- Providing insights on current and future growth trends impacting a sector’s economic development, investment attraction, and job growth potential; and
- Identifying existing barriers and enablers that exist for sector growth.
PROJECT SUCCESS STORY
On behalf of the Concrete Council of Canada, GLOBE Advisors carried out an analysis of the costs to insure mid-rise (six-storey) wood frame residential buildings, with particular emphasis on the risk factors contributing to differentials between insurance rates for such buildings compared to structures built using various non-combustible materials such as cast-in-place concrete, insulated concrete forms, precast concrete, or concrete blocks.
The genesis of this research stems from the growing presence of mid-rise residential structures built largely from wood frame or engineered wood products in various jurisdictions across Canada in the wake of changes and expected future changes in federal and provincial building codes.
The analysis supporting this report was not intended to compare the relative merits of wood frame versus concrete buildings with respect to structural integrity, engineering design, energy or environmental merits or architectural aesthetics. Those matters are well documented in myriad studies and analyses readily available elsewhere, some of which are listed in the bibliography of this report.
Rather, the focus is on assessing the factors guiding rate setting for insuring the construction and on-going operation of mid-rise residential structures and to determine the reasons for the significant differences that exist with respect to the availability of insurance and the rates charged for buildings constructed mainly from wood compared to those comprised of non-combustible concrete materials.
In preparing this report GLOBE Advisors consulted with insurance brokers, underwriters, casualty and claims administrators, experts in wood frame and concrete construction, housing market developers, strata managers, and real estate agents.