Sustainability

Mass Timber’s Expanding Presence in the Commercial Building Industry

Developers around the world who were first movers on buildings that use mass timber for both structural and design elements are seeing a growing wave of projects lining up before them. The regulatory environment is adapting while the business model for use of mass timber is expanding across property types.

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Boosting Property Values and Building Performance for Class B and C Office with Increased Energy Efficiency

Improved energy efficiency of class B and C office buildings can be achieved with relatively simple, lower-cost measures that not only enhance building performance, but also boost property values to make the buildings more competitive with class A space, new ULI research shows.

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Building Highly Sustainable, Energy-Efficient Workplaces: Tenant and Owner Perspectives

Greening the workplace beyond the existing building code requirements requires both tenants and owners to prioritize investing in and tracking sustainability. Two panels of experts, one composed of tenant representatives and the other of property owner representatives, discussed their challenges and solutions at “Beyond Code for a Greener Bay Area: Owner and Tenant Solutions for Sustainable Buildouts,” an event organized by ULI San Francisco and ULI’s Tenant Energy Optimization Program.

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Halfway There: After Making Progress in Operational Efficiency, Buildings Must Now Consider Embodied Carbon

Embodied carbon refers to the emissions associated with manufacturing, transportation, and construction of building materials, as well as building disposal. As buildings become more efficient and emit less carbon during their operational lifetime, embodied carbon will become the majority share of building-related carbon emissions.

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Recent Articles

  • Helping Make Downtown Fort Lauderdale More Connected, Sustainable, and Walkable

    October 25, 2019

    ULI Advisory Services panelists spent a week in October visiting various sites in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to evaluate buildings as well as the infrastructure, especially connected to the area’s water management. The panel made several recommendations for how the city of Fort Lauderdale, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA), and local developers can create a greener, more connected, less congested, and more resilient downtown.

  • Solving for Climate Change’s Impact on Urban Water: Flooding, Sea Rise, and Drought?

    October 21, 2019

    Climate change and its relationship to water management are having a profound impact on cities, compounded by the global trend toward urbanization. Harvard University recently hosted a wide-ranging discussion titled, “The Future of Cities: Water,” which assembled an international panel of experts to provide insights into the challenges of water-related climate change as well as potential solutions for a broad range of city environments.

  • How Four Developers Are Blending Social Equity and Health Concerns into Future Projects

    September 24, 2019

    With health and social equity becoming an increasing focus in the real estate industry, four prominent developers speaking at the ULI Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C., highlighted ways in which they are prioritizing these issues in their corporate strategies, portfolios, and projects.

  • City Officials and Real Estate Leaders Look to Collaborate on Addressing Climate Change

    More than 50 cities now have set the goal of 100 percent reliance on renewable energy for the future. With buildings accounting for 75 percent of U.S. electricity consumption, achieving these commitments will require the active participation and cooperation of the real estate sector. Public officials from New York City and Washington, D.C., sat down with real estate and business leaders at the ULI Fall Meeting to address ways to collaborate on battling climate change.

  • Investors and Bond-Rating Analysts Are Working to Quantify Risks from Climate Change

    September 20, 2019

    Real estate investors and analysts who rate local government bonds already are grappling with how to evaluate the future risks from rapid climate change, panelists said at ULI’s 2019 Resilience Summit, part of the Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C.

  • Economist Warns of Dire Consequences for Real Estate from Climate Change at ULI Resilience Summit

    September 19, 2019

    Climate change will have a drastic, disruptive effect on the commercial real estate sector over the next several decades as rising temperatures make some areas less habitable and increasingly intense storms and rising sea levels erode the value of coastal real estate, according to a a Harvard-trained economist and fellow at Woods Hole Research Center speaking at ULI’s Resilience Summit, part of the 2019 Fall Meeting in Washington D.C.

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