by Brianna Crandall — December 7, 2015—The Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) recently announced it is collaborating with 2030 Districts to promote sustainability across the United States. 2030 Districts are evolving as a new model for urban sustainability, with more than 241 million square feet of commercial building space.
2030 Districts
Across North America, 2030 Districts are forming to meet the energy, water and vehicle emissions reduction targets for existing buildings and new construction called for by Architecture 2030 in the 2030 Challenge for Planning. First established in Seattle, 2030 Districts are in the vanguard of the grassroots effort to create long-term partnerships, coalitions, and collaboration around achievable and measurable goals for renovating hundreds of millions of square feet of existing urban and suburban areas and infrastructure, as well as for infill development and redevelopment.
2030 Districts are described as unique private / public partnerships that bring property owners and managers together with local governments, businesses, and community stakeholders to provide a business model for urban sustainability through collaboration, leveraged financing, and shared resources. Together they benchmark, develop and implement creative strategies, best practices and verification methods for measuring progress towards a common goal.
2030 Districts Network
The vision of the 2030 Districts Network is to onboard new cities using the new business model, support peer exchange across Districts, store and share data, use the aggregate purchasing power of the District membership to secure reduced costs, create national partnership relationships, and influence policy making. Investors and capital markets are evaluating sustainability indicators to determine asset performance and desirability. The 10 cities established so far in the 2030 Districts Network are Seattle, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Denver, Stamford, San Francisco, Dallas, Toronto, and Albuquerque.
IREM partnership
2030 Districts receive a discount on IREM’s Analyzing and Presenting Deep Retrofit Value series of online courses. These courses show investment real estate professionals how to analyze the financial impact of energy and sustainability retrofits and make a compelling case to move projects forward with owners, investors, and other stakeholders. Other areas of collaboration include opportunities for case studies, joint Webinars, and additional collaboration with IREM chapters. IREM President Lori Burger, CPM, Eugene Burger Management Corporation, AMO, Rohnert Park, California, commented:
The 2030 Districts vision to unite cities to promote sustainability is remarkable. Sustainability is becoming essential in real estate management and it presents opportunities to enhance asset value. IREM is pleased to offer convenient online courses that enable industry professionals to evaluate and take advantage of those opportunities.
Learn more about IREM’s sustainability resources.
