Climate and Real Estate Hub

In this image of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the colors represent which buildings could be retrofitted to obtain different percentages of total energy savings. Converting just red and orange buildings would achieve 40 percent of the total potential energy savings in the city from efficiency improvements. West Cambridge has a dividing line that shows efficient, dense housing next to a several homes that could use a retrofit. This might be because that neighborhood was built at a different time, or because the
Project Members
Engagement Method
Design
Economics, Finance, Policy
Social Engagement
Urban Science
Action Area
Energy and the Environment
Housing
Strategic Priority
Tackling the Climate Crisis

The real estate sector is responsible for 40% of all carbon emissions globally. At the same time, with the built environment at risk to fire, flooding, hurricane, extreme heat and drought, there is significant demand for transforming the real estate sector to adapt to the increasing occurrence of such extreme events. The Climate and Real Estate Research Hub is an interdisciplinary research team at the the intersection of climate science and real estate fields, using methods from economics, urban planning, environmental science, computer science, building technology and behavioral science. Topics include building decarbonization and electrification, embodied carbon in the construction sector, uncovering preferences for sustainable investments of institutional investors or the estimation of value impacts of climate risk on real estate markets.

Team members include: Siqi Zheng, Juan Palacios, Fábio Duarte, Yichun Fan, Katelyn McVay, and Yuchen Chai

 

Image credit: Jameson L. Toole from David L. Chandler's MIT News Office piece: How to make cities more energy efficient