Net Zero Real Estate ft Owen Barrett

Since earning a bachelor’s degree in finance, cutting his teeth in the financial industry, and earning a master’s degree in environmental science and management, Owen’s been on a professional rampage, pushing complacency and bureaucracy aside and decarbonizing our economy at an impressive rate. As a Global Energy Manager for a Fortune 500 company for three years, Owen implemented $60 million of clean technology. Combining his experience in fuel cells, solar PV, energy storage, LED lighting, and HVAC optimization, Owen left to launch lumeo, a niche ESCO. Within three years, lumeo hit eight figures in revenue and helped forty school districts implement energy efficiency and renewable energy. After a successful exit from lumeo, Owen looked for his next opportunity. After nearly a decade in the clean technology industry, Owen concluded there’s too much attention given to developing new clean technologies and not enough focus on rapid deployment of existing technology. It doesn’t matter how efficient a solar module is if only 3% of American buildings have them installed. Owen started ZNE Capital and pivoted to buying commercial real estate for the purpose of decarbonizing it. In just three years, Owen acquired and partially decarbonized $96M of multifamily properties. While ZNE Capital proves to have a successful business model, the rampant inauthenticity within the institutional impact investing space made it challenging for ZNE Capital to make impact at scale. Owen founded Rayven to decarbonize existing buildings at scale. Rayven is the world’s first net zero real estate investment platform. Every property we buy is converted to true net zero (no offsets involved). By partnering with thousands of authentic, retail impact investors, Owen, Rayven, and every single investor will decarbonize the world, one apartment building at a time.