Developing For Sustainability

As we begin to discuss the dangers of climate change, we must look at the sustainability of development. Currently, we as a race are reaching a tipping point where there is no going back, and we need to find solutions to these problems. A result of these problems has been mass destruction from natural disasters.

As our climate changes, we have been faced with more and more destruction than ever before. To cope with and help stem these adverse effects of climate change, we need to develop our cities for a more sustainable future.

Developing for sustainably is not only safer and a pro-active approach, but it saves our taxpayers from billions of dollars in relief aid that the government already shovels out.

As we face destruction from natural disasters, many developers still develop in areas with repeated destruction. Developers will continuously develop in areas that they can profit from without considering the residents or the future of their developments. The re-development of buildings in areas comes with the knowledge that they run the high risk of being demolished during catastrophic events, rather than disincentivizing developers from rebuilding in these areas.

Government shovels out billions of dollars of our taxpayer money to help rebuild communities that are being built to be destroyed, with no actionable solution brought forward.

Cities such as Miami and Houston have been immensely affected by hurricanes and many other natural disasters over the past decades. However, developers instead still develop in these affected cities. In the coming year, many scientists project the city of Miami to be underwater in some parts. The problem with this is that many developers do not care about these facts because the value of the land in the coastal areas of Miami is some of the most valuable in the country. Those that decide to develop stand to make millions of dollars in profit without taking into account the problems that arise in the future. Developments will focus solely based on profit are part of a more significant problem. Sadly, there does not seem to be an end to this problem in areas with such high land value and where real estate is thriving. As real estate sees all-time highs across the board, the market for these areas is only increasing, making the problem only worse.

Houston suffers a similar problem to Miami, but almost half of the Houston Metropolitan area lies within a flood plain. Hurricane Harvey showed the effects of what building in flood plains will result in. Nevertheless, rather than focus on better areas to develop in the surrounding area. We will build in the same area and essentially waste the $120 billion of taxpayer money provided to the Houston area in the rebuilding effort in affected communities. Developing in areas where these events repeat is a waste of development and taxpayer money and causes dangers to those within these areas.

Rather than deal with the issue at hand, many people believe that they can develop homes and buildings to withstand natural disasters.

Not only are these projects super costly to develop, but they are putting a small band-aid on a wound that will not stop bleeding. Local banks in at-risk areas need to halt the lending of loans to developers in areas that threaten destruction. This will make it harder for developers to develop buildings for profit over sustainability. We need to encourage more innovative development for the future and deter the current trend that exists.

Before we can completely overhaul the way, we develop as a society, we need to invest in committing to a more sustainable future. This can be done through building in newer areas and investing in technology that is more friendly to the environment and much more affordable to produce. We need solutions that are not only for the current problems we face but also for the ones in the future that will present themselves.

As someone who wants to pursue a career in real estate development, I will be tasked to discover the solutions to developing a more sustainable future for our cities and our nation. Developing for a sustainable future is not better for the environment, but in the end, it saves the public from wasting billions of our taxpayer money from being wasted.