Links

Fannie Mae
Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of financing for home mortgages, and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), have created an environmental partnership to recognize the growing interest in environmentally-responsible construction methods and help further these efforts nationwide.

Green Development Services (PDF)
Rocky Mountain Institute's Green Development Services program works to help enable architects, developers, and other real estate professionals to integrate energy-efficient and environmentally responsive design into specific projects.

Urban Land Institute
Provides premier information and educational resources on a wide variety of real estate topics including finance. ULI promotes Smart Growth real estate development.

The Center for Real Estate Development--University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School
The Center for Real Estate Development is the only business school real estate program specifically focused on helping real estate development leaders of today and tomorrow learn to create and manage the built environment in ways that ensure its long and sustainable future. Education offerings include finance and capital markets.

Location Efficient Mortgage Project--Center for Neighborhood Technology
The Location Efficient Mortgage (LEM) is an innovative mortgage product that is being developed and will be offered in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to low- and moderate- income borrowers who are interested in living in urban areas served by public transportation systems.

EPA's Brownfields Program: Money Matters
The Brownfields program website contains a Money Matters section that lists funding sources for brownfields cleanup and redevelopment. Information on EPA resources, federal partnership opportunities, and other resources is presented at the site.

Articles and Publications

Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate
Serves as a comprehensive guide to all aspects of sustainable real estate development. Chapter 8 of the book focuses on financing. Available from the Rocky Mountain Institute. A companion CD ROM is also available.

Financing Progressive Development
This article in Capital Xchange web-based finance journal explores some of the reasons that new urbanism, smart growth, and sustainable developments have had difficulty attracting conventional financing, and makes recommendations for measuring the value of progressive development.

Financing Change: The Financial Community, Eco-Efficiency and Sustainable Development, by Stephen Schmidheiny and Federico Zorraquin.
At first glance, this book would seem more in the realm of bankers or investors. However, it is highly recommended to design professionals, as buildings and other development projects are capital-intensive undertakings. Although focused on large-scale developments and the industrial sector, the book seems equally appropriate to residential, small commercial or institutional projects.

Investing in a Better Future: A Review of the Fiscal and Competitive Advantages of Smarter Growth Development Patterns (PDF-150k)
A paper released by The Brookings Institution conducts a review of academic empirical literature to weigh the extent to which a new way of thinking about growth and development can benefit governments, businesses, and regions. The report finds that the cost of providing public infrastructure and delivering services can be reduced through thoughtful design and planning.

Last updated: May 14, 2004

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