“This is not driven by altruism.” -Paul Morris, Vice President of Sustainable Planning and Development, Cherokee

In a workshop at last week’s Ceres conference, Mr. Morris explained the benefits of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). His private equity firm redevelops brownfields – dormant industrial properties usually marked by significant environmental damage – into new, mixed-use developments.

I was intrigued by the political and economic calculus behind such projects. Mr. Morris described how homebuyers, commercial tenants, and local governments are driving TOD growth – and not because of any sense of social mission. Buyers and renters want proximity to work and transit, and cities want the revenues from more intensive land use.

(read more…)

Co-Chair, Peter Kinder’s, Opening Remarks(1)
American Conference Institute
Warwick Hotel, New York City
February 27, 2008

What are the only three things you need to know about real estate? Location. Location. Location!

Well, there’s the conference….

(read more…)

I discovered this curve on Xigi.net, a social networking site. It shows where different market sectors or drivers behind sustainable development reside on the continuum of 1) acceptance in the mainstream, 2) visibility to the public eye, and 3) maturity as a social enterprise.

A good friend who used to work in the carbon offsets sector commented to me that this curve should be thought of as a zoomed-in pixel of a larger graph showing major social shifts in the twentieth century (think 1960’s, vietnam, civil rights). The larger wave is building very strongly right now and this wave (from xigi) will break on top of the broader, deeper and stonger wave as we shift toward a more sustainable mode of living.

(read more…)