DISCIPLINE KNOWLEDGE
Sustainable Development
Evaluate the latest knowledge and innovations in Sustainable Development to ascertain how property value and returns can be maximized
Sustainable Development is a subject that became important in my undergraduate degree and continued into my graduate program. This is a concept that is becoming more important and popular every day, and should be taken into consideration if we want to create lasting and fulfilling developments. A common misconception is that sustainability is expensive, but we are taught in our program that sustainability can be achieved and still have a return on investment. We are taught about this value that sustainability can bring through a concept called the ‘Sustainability Dividend.’ These sustainable ideas can be the difference a development needs to set itself apart from similar projects.
There are guidelines set up that a project can meet in order to achieve certain ratings, like LEED, SITES, and STAR. These programs give out different levels to a project to show how sustainably friendly the project is. Projects can achieve sustainability through practices like LID (low impact development), energy conservation, material reuse, brownfield redevelopment, community gardens, wetland and shoreline conservation, and much more.
In LDEV 671(Sustainable Development), we were assigned a topic that we needed to find academic peer-reviewed articles on then present them to the class. My topic was the relationship between green buildings and green. Below is my presentation (slides and video) and the articles I used to back up my topic. Does green architecture create a 'green' mindset for the people who live and work in them? Ultimately my answer was no, but that this depends on the practices that are implemented in the building for the tenants. Green architecture won't magically create better people, but it has been known to create calmer and friendlier work environments. Green people come from having the right mindset to be sustainable and having a plan on how to live that way.