Redevelopment Economics

The H. F. Miller Building in Baltimore - Greenhouse gas savings quantified (credit Billy Michaels Photography)

Measuring the Climate Benefits of Energy-Efficient Buildings in Energy-efficient Locations  

The HF Miller building is not only planned to be LEED Gold, it is also in a smart growth location, such that vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) are significantly below norms.  We estimated that the building is saving 296 metric tons of CO₂ annually relative to conventional construction in a typical suburban location.  See our article on "Quantifying the Environmental Benefits of the Maryland Historic Tax Credit Program," published in The Forum.

Measuring Productivity Gains due to Smart Growth:

For the Wesport Waterfront project our cost-benefit analysis included a projection of productivity gains attributable to the smart growth characteristics of the project.  Some resources for the analysis were:

• For every doubling of employment density, the number of patents per capita increases, on average, by 20 to 30 percent.   See this this article;
• Doubling urban population density has been documented to produce a 6% increase in productivity (see this article)
• The average american spends the equivalent of 55 workdays annually commuting (see this report)