Spring 2021 Issue - 45

tional single bottom line. Considering development
through these lenses can enable our assets to have
more value over the long term.

MEHNERT: Utilities are modernizing and upgrading
the electric grid to make more room for renewable
energy sources. Hawaii has some of the highest
energy costs in the nation, but we also have a
unique opportunity to tap into renewable energies
like geothermal-we have a volcano, how exciting
is that? We have the trade winds that we can use
for wind power. We can take advantage of wave
power, as well as deep water cooling for air conditioning. One island is using hydrogen-powered
buses. Currently, Hawaii is ranked sixth for total
solar installations in the nation. Honolulu is now
requiring electric vehicle-charging stations in new
buildings. Some smaller developers feel that this is
adding additional costs to their development, but,
at a minimum, we need to continue the dialogue
between the public and private sectors and figure
out how we can make this work, because there's no
question we all agree on where we need to go.

I'm spending more time helping our clients
understand climate risk and what that means for
their real estate investments in terms of moving
toward carbon neutrality and reducing their carbon
footprints, both at the asset level and the portfolio
level. Our clients are mostly investment managers
and institutional investors, and when they start shopping around for development deals to invest in, they
are starting to establish criteria that require developers to be carbon ready to respond to that investment
objective. Another topic that is getting more attention
from real estate companies is diversity. A lot of companies are taking action to both understand it and
apply it to improve their businesses.

DAVIS:

The United States should look to Canada's experience for some creative ideas. National
solutions are more cost-effective than local ones,
but unlike in Europe and Asia, both countries have
stronger local rights than federal rights around
zoning, conservation, and power production and

ERIXON:

©MANA PHOTO/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

What other trends do you see at work in
this arena?

distribution, for example. So, the focus has to shift
toward community-based thinking. In Toronto, the
city realized that it had a very centralized system of
providing social services, which allows for economies of scale, but services weren't accessible to
many, especially in areas where recent immigrants
reside. The government responded by bringing services closer to where people live, such as schools
and public libraries, and at more accessible times,
especially evenings and weekends. I expect we will
see a lot more innovation as we begin to address
uneven pandemic outcomes.
At last year's Fall Meeting, among the top 10
topic trends for that week in ULI's Knowledge Finder,
the number-one topic was resilience, the second was
sustainable development, and the third was responsible property investment. By a large margin. Finance
and capital markets were last in the top 10. So, triple
bottom line-related topics have come to the forefront
and are having a meaningful impact on what we as
real estate developers and investors are doing. The
real estate industry is starting to recognize that we are
in an extraordinary period right now, and that we need
to look at these issues in a much more holistic and
integrated way. UL

McCABE:

R O N N Y R E N is a freelance architecture, urban planning, and real
estate writer based in the San Francisco Bay area.

SPRING 2021

AFeature_OpnrOutlook_SP21.indd 45

Solar photovoltaic panels
mounted on a house in
Honolulu.

U R B A N LA N D

3/30/21 1:49 PM

Spring 2021 Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Spring 2021 Issue