The ULI Alberta Chapter hosted “A Resilient Future: Climate Risk and Real Estate Investment Decisions” on the morning of June 25th at the Calgary Petroleum Club.

Katherine Burgess, Vice President of Urban Resilience with the Urban Land Institute, typically looks at resilience in terms of events. She is excited to be a part of Calgary’s resilience strategy launch this week, which is taking a more holistic approach in adapting to resilience. Land use and building design are important tools for enhancing resilience. Real estate leaders and building owners in the past looked at resilience focused on mitigation rather than adaptation. Today, we are seeing these leaders more concerned about climate risks and starting to investigate strategies to protect real estate assets. Some returns on investment for investing in climate resilience include energy and water reductions, quicker building lease-ups, extended building life, and better chances for business continuity.

Craig Applegath, a Toronto architect with DIALOG, provided attendees with 10 ideas on climate including: 1) climate change is real – impacts are starting to affect all of our clients, 2) increased frequency of sever weather events, 3) it will probably happen again, 4) water is a big issue for Calgary – too much in the short term and too little in the future, 5) adaptation: protection, resilience, and recovery, 6) seek out global expertise – Netherlands a front runner in flood protection strategies, 7) short term and long term solutions – city resilience strategies need to address both, 8) public and private solutions are required, 9) process is important – everyone in the city is a stakeholder and, 10) time is of the essence – impacts are increasing at an exponential rate.

The panel discussion, with Katharine Burgess, Craig Applegath, Linda Buckton (Client Executive at BFL Canada), Matt Wood (Team Lead at Stantec), and Chris Arthurs (Deputy Resilience Officer at the City of Calgary), agreed that resilience is a collective effort between both private and public sectors and that we need to encourage our co-workers and community members to continue the conversation. Speaking across different business sectors and creating tools to communicate the benefits of resilience will directly impact the success of our urban landscapes in the future.

Thank you to our attendees and our event VIP table sponsor, the City of Calgary for making this event a great success!

View Gallery