Is Sustainable Infrastructure Sexy?
June 2008

What looks like a sound investment when almost everything else seems to be falling apart? Well, according to many experts, the answer is now infrastructure.

Forbes magazine says “Infrastructure is Sexy” and Morgan Stanley raises $4 bn global infrastructure fund while reporting that, "The successful fund-raising underscores the particular demand for infrastructure investment and for alternative assets.”

At a recent international conference on Best Practices for Sustaining Infrastructure, host CEO Greg Bentley defined “Infrastructure” as “the interface between people and our planet and it embraces everyone and requires all of our respective efforts in architecture, engineering, construction, and operations of our buildings and all of the world’s infrastructure assets.” Bentley went on to issue a Sustaining Infrastructure White Paper which calls for infrastructure that sustains society, the planet, and the profession.  Conference keynote speaker and author of the book “Green to Gold”, Andrew Winston offered his thoughts on how companies can grow and prosper, but warns, Better Get Efficient...and Fast.

As detailed in previous issues of this newsletter and our magazines, SLDI embraces the challenge to provide sustainable infrastructure by offering a balanced vision of land development that is holistic, including an often-overlooked and necessary component in this month’s SLDT featured article below – Trees: A Capital Asset & Community Infrastructure.

In another effort to help facilitate mass industry intelligence on sustainability within the land development industry, the SLDI Knowledge Project™ has been introduced to utilize Wiki technology and enable users around the world to provide the infrastructure for the development of a dynamically evolving “encyclopedia” of sustainable land development knowledge. Furthermore, I personally am calling for our industry to be a positive evolutionary force for sustainable infrastructure in this month’s SLDT The Last Word editorial entitled, “Nature Bats Last.  We are Part of Nature, Too…”.

Your participation and comments are welcome.

Terry Mock
Executive Director
Sustainable Land Development International

Promoting land development worldwide that balances the needs of people, planet & profit - for today and future generations.

People, Planet and Profit

Beyond Buildings

Welcome to SLDI

SLDI Newsletter Archives:

January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008

• Trees: A Capital Asset & Community Infrastructure
  (May 2008) Trees are a capital asset for communities, the older they become the greater the return on investment. Source: Sustainable Land Development Today

• Could Money really Grow on Trees?
  (May 2008) Forests are currently worth more chopped down than standing. A novel experiment in Guyana seeks to put a value on the services provided by forests. Source: Ethical Corporation

• How Climate change is Impacting on Real Estate
  (May 8, 2008) While debate still rages as to what degree human behaviour affects climate change, there is little doubt that the reverse holds true. Global warming awareness is impacting on human behaviour.
  Source: bcnewsgroup.com Canada

• Insurers see Greater Risk of Hurricanes and Charge More
  (May 31, 2008) Scientists disagree about whether global warming is promoting more hurricanes -- but here's an inconvenient truth.
  Source: Miami Herald, Florida

• Everything you know about Water Conservation is Wrong
  (May 28, 2008) We are in an encroaching global water crisis and should be mindful of the amount of water needed for the production of any product from start to finish--or our virtual water usage.
  Source: Discover

• The Environment must Stay at the heart of Policy
  (June 1, 2008) Climate change and economics are linked, but not in the way that David Cameron and Gordon Brown seem to think. The real correlation is between long-term prosperity and our agility in pre-empting the effects of global warming.
  Source: London Observer, England

• Could US Scientist's 'CO2 Catcher' Help to Slow Warming?
  (May 31, 2008) A group of US scientists say they have made a breakthrough towards creating a device that can "suck" carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, reducing the warming effect of the billions of tons of greenhouse gas produced each year.
  Source: London Guardian, England

• Senators Weigh Carbon Bill
  (June 2, 2008) The debate over how aggressively the U.S. should act to help ease climate change hits the Senate starting today, with lawmakers forced to pick sides on a potential election-year issue.
  Source: Denver Post, Colorado

• Small Gestures not Enough to Tackle Climate Change
  (June 2, 2008) A radical redesign of our towns and cities will be needed to tackle climate change, the Government's design watchdog warned in Birmingham on Friday.
  Source: Birmingham Post, England

• Nobel Winner: CO2 going to 1,000 Parts per Million
  (June 1, 2008) F. Sherwood Rowland, the atmospheric chemist who shared a Nobel Prize for his work revealing the threat to the ozone layer from CFC’s and similar synthetic chemicals has a very sobering forecast for levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
  Source: New York Times

• World's Third-Largest Rain Forest 'Will Disappear in Ten Years.'
  (June 2, 2008) Papua New Guinea's tropical forests are being destroyed so quickly by logging, fires and farming that more than half could vanish by 2021, according to a new study.
  Source: Daily Mail, United Kingdom

• A Captivating Remedy
  (June 2, 2008) A crude division can be made between two sets of people who both want to fight climate change. One seeks a fundamental reconstruction of the way humans live, a sustainable revolution that would change many aspects of modern society.
  Source: London Guardian, England

• Sustainability is a State of Mind
  (June 2, 2008) Portland political officials recently announced plans to create a "first-class World Sustainability Center."
  Source: Salem Statesman Journal, Orego

• Storms Fail to Spark much Change in Building Codes
  (June 1, 2008) After calamitous hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005 destroyed nearly half a million homes across the South, most Gulf states bolstered their building codes to reduce the risk of future storm damage. But not Texas.
  Source: Houston Chronicle, Texas

• Ethanol at Turning Point
  (June 1, 2008) Corn prices are soaring and the quest for alternatives to foreign oil is gaining momentum, but ethanol refiners are finding their network of investors reacting harshly as margins shrink.
  Source: Chicago Tribune, Illinois

• As Wind Rises in Texas, Obstacles Loom
  (June 1, 2008) Texas today has 5,300 megawatts of wind power on line, 25 times more than in 2000 and enough power to light more than 1.5 million homes. But challenges, both economic and environmental, threaten growth.
  Source: Houston Chronicle, Texas

• What will it take to Ditch all that Carbon?
  (June 1, 2008) To reverse climate change, we need a carbon collector the size of the Great Wall of China, and a giant aquifer to dump millions of tons of captured CO2 - at least that is what scientist Wallace Broecker proposes.
  Source: Discover

• Move to Building Green Gains Steam in Bay Area
  (June 1, 2008) A Q&A with Dan Geiger, head of the U.S. Green Building Council's Northern California chapter, whose mission is to set the standards for energy-efficient construction and environmentally friendly building operation.
  Source: Contra Costa Times

• Workers Strike at Project CityCenter
  (June 3, 2008) The majority of union workers on MGM Mirage Inc.'s multibillion dollar CityCenter project struck late Monday after talks broke down. Since construction on CityCenter began, six men have died. The latest, 39-year-old Dustin Tarter, a crane worker, was killed Saturday.
  Source: CBS 8 Eyewitness News, Las Vegas, Nevada