10 projects model ways to prepare the built environment for climate stresses and shocks

It’s no secret that insurance costs for commercial real estate have been rising significantly for many property owners across Europe, which, in turn, affects net operating incomes for many of them. Many factors are at play to explain the surge in higher premiums, including expensive and scarce reinsurance, inflation, and regulatory restrictions.

A recent ULI member–exclusive webinar titled “Climate Risk & Insurance: Is the global real estate sector entering an insurability crisis?” addressed the rising cost of property insurance premiums, impacts on commercial real estate, and strategies for protecting long-term profitability.

As global temperatures rise from accelerating climate change, extreme temperature swings‚ both cold snaps and heat waves‚ are causing increasing damage and disruption. However, extreme cold and storms that bring snow, ice, and freezing rain can receive less focus than warm-weather hazards such as blistering heat and powerful hurricanes.

A few key trends that evolved over the past few years and continue to shape the field of placemaking in 2025 reflect a growing commitment to sustainability, resource efficiency, and the responsible management of urban spaces.

This year, global ULI Greenprint real estate members reported a 6.3 percent year-for-year, like-for-like reduction in absolute carbon emissions. This result marks the second year in a row that members have reported a reduction of more than 6 percent in absolute carbon emissions—a testament to ULI Greenprint members’ leadership in making progress on their sustainability goals. In addition to leading by example, members continue to fund ULI resources that support the broader industry’s decarbonization progress.

ASTM International, a standards-setting organization, has released a new standard guide for assessing a property’s degree of resilience to physical climate hazards, thus marking a key milestone in the process of scaling up climate adaptation in real estate and the built environment. As property losses and disruption from such hazards as storms, wildfires, and floods continue to rise, the new standard guide, ASTM E3429—the Property Resilience Assessment—is designed to provide real estate owners, developers, investors, insurers, lenders, design teams, and regulators with a consistent means of determining how resilient a given property is and, potentially, what would be needed to better protect it.

ULI’s Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate held roundtable discussions with members of the ULI Americas Sustainable Development Council, the ULI Asia Pacific Net Zero Council, and the ULI Europe Sustainability Council to inform an outlook for 2025. During the discussions, members addressed sustainability topics and issues that are on the rise, why they matter, and what actions the industry should pursue in the future. Based on expert knowledge shared by those who attended, ULI identified five issues that will shape real estate decision-making in the coming months.

On January 7, 2025, when sparks began igniting the communities of Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Pasadena, Altadena, Hollywood, and others, the city of Los Angeles had been struggling to produce 486,379 new housing units by 2029, a number mandated by California’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) to address the shortfall.

Shenzhen’s Nantou Ancient City project represents a groundbreaking approach to revitalizing China’s historic urban villages in a way that preserves their cultural heritage and community fabric. After China’s government designated Shenzhen as a Special Economic Zone in 1980, the city’s more than 400 urban villages grew rapidly to provide informal housing for an influx of migrant workers. The result: high-density residential areas that maximized rental income but often compromised on fire safety and hygiene standards.