Advanced Sustainable Real Estate

Catalog description

This online course explores advanced topics and case studies in the applied science and economics of producing, investing in, and managing sustainable real estate. The recurring theme of people, place and profit is redefined within the context of user demand, asset management, building operations, and financial acumen. Students trace a narrative of process that begins with market analysis and conceptual design and ends with de-commissioning and recycling. Throughout the course, the central subjectivities and applications of sustainability will be challenged in order to critically evaluate aspects of social, financial, and environmental sustainability. In particular, the course seeks to understand the extent to which empirical science can inform risk-adjusted investment decisions. The course includes a systematic review of various rating systems, environmental technologies, project alternatives, project delivery models, and commissioning standards, and as well as the supporting risk management systems and contracting provisions defining contemporary industry practice. Students will move from asset-specific evaluations within the boundaries of a site to understand how portfolios of assets are managed across various scales and geographies. The intent of the course is to further the division between the greening and browning of real estate assets in order to impose higher standards in design, construction and management. In this sense, the future will be defined by a world in which all real estate is low-impact, sustainable, and possesses a designed adaptive capacity to accommodate future user demand and environmental performance.