Urban Land Magazine
Sustainability
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.
Read MoreHalfway 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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Helping Make Downtown Fort Lauderdale More Connected, Sustainable, and Walkable
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.
Read MoreSolving for Climate Change’s Impact on Urban Water: Flooding, Sea Rise, and Drought?
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.
Read MoreRecent Articles
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How Four Developers Are Blending Social Equity and Health Concerns into Future Projects
September 24, 2019With 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.
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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.
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Investors and Bond-Rating Analysts Are Working to Quantify Risks from Climate Change
September 20, 2019Real 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.
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Economist Warns of Dire Consequences for Real Estate from Climate Change at ULI Resilience Summit
September 19, 2019Climate 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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Increasing Access to Biking and Walking Trails for All in Austin, Texas
September 12, 2019A robust public/private partnership could further enable a bike trail and pedestrian boardwalk that bridges the lingering cultural divide between the east and west sides of Austin, Texas, a ULI Advisory Services panel said in August.
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ULI Report Reflects Decade of Progress in Improved Environmental Performance in the Built Environment
August 28, 2019A new report from the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance shows that the real estate industry has made significant progress over the past 10 years in reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption while increasing asset value. Volume 10 of the Greenprint Performance Report™, which measures and tracks the performance of 8,916 properties owned by Greenprint’s members, demonstrates a 10-year improvement of 17 percent in energy use intensity, which is the annual energy consumption divided by gross floor area. The report also finds that Greenprint members are still on track to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030.