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Urban climate readiness requires multi-dimensional implementation strategies that operate effectively across both spatial scales and time horizons. This article introduces a multi-scale, phased model designed to support integrated climate action by distinguishing between metropolitan and building levels and addressing three core domains: physical resilience, decarbonization, and social/community engagement. The framework conceptualizes metropolitan and building scales as analytically distinct but operationally linked, allowing strategies to reflect the different systems, stakeholders, and capacities at each level. It also outlines a three-phase progression—Initial (assessment and goal setting), Readiness (planning and implementation), and Steady-State (monitoring and iterative adjustment)—to support staged, adaptive deployment. Each phase includes sample metrics and SMART goals that can be tailored to local context and tracked over time. By integrating theoretical insights with practical implementation tools, the framework offers a flexible yet rigorous approach for advancing urban sustainability. It emphasizes the importance of aligning technical interventions with institutional capacity and community participation to enhance effectiveness and equity. This model contributes to both planning theory and applied sustainability efforts by providing a structured pathway for cities to enhance climate readiness across systems and scales.

The statistics, finance, and real estate literature regularly rely on propensity score matching techniques to balance samples of data where randomized treatment assignment is not possible. In the sustainable commercial real estate literature the technique has seen substantive use. To analyze price and rent premiums for green buildings, several studies have used propensity scores to ensure samples that contains eco-labeled and un-labeled buildings reflect a randomized assignment of the treatment. Underpinning the argument for the use of propensity scores is the notion that green buildings contain similar attributes to non-green buildings. However, if the green labels were ignored, would premium buildings be otherwise statistically similar to premium buildings in the market? Here, we analyze a research question focusing on the extent to which propensity scores can predict a green building using the standard building attributes and whether propensity scoring is an econometric necessity?

Land bank programs aid in rejuvenating and revitalizing communities. Historical redlining has been shown to have negative long term economic, health, and environmental justice outcomes for poorly graded neighborhoods. This article shows that the State Land Bank Authority of Michigan (SLBA) holds parcels disproportionately in historically redlined neighborhoods. Further, the data reveals that the SLBA holds parcels in neighborhoods across all historical redlined categories with higher social vulnerability and lower mortality rates, in many cases also with higher minority representation. The potential policy impact is that the SLBA, and possibly other land banks following suitable research, can serve as effective channels to reach the most at-risk populations.

In this study, we analyze the demand for green office building features among office tenants in the United States. An online survey of a random sample of office tenants in 17 major U.S. markets is employed. Respondents provided their perspective on green buildings and their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for green features. They have the highest WTP for improved indoor air quality and access to natural light. The results show that public firms, along with those in the energy and information technology industries are most likely to pay for green-labeled buildings. Regional and demographic preferences are shown in both WTP and attribute ranking. The findings provide implications for policymakers and property developers in terms of which green building features are considered to be most important for green building practices, and how demand for green features potentially differs across regions.

This paper examines the persistence of differentiated pricing in the multi-family housing related to eco-certification. In examining a sample of market rents for non-specialty, multi-family properties both across the U.S., as well as those areas that enjoy the highest concentrations of LEED certified apartments, we find rental premiums of 10.2% and 14.7%, respectively for those properties with LEED certification. The addition of the continuous Walk Score, to control for variations in urban form, results in premiums of 7.4% and 9.6%, respectively. These findings are directionally consistent with those found in earlier studies, and demonstrate a persistence in rental premiums for certified properties over time, and with increased LEED adoption.

In this paper, we examine the impact of large-scale ownership on commercial real estate rent and selling price premiums. We also examine whether ENERGY STAR premiums found in the literature are a result of a signal for an ownership brand effect rather than the label itself. The results suggest that large-scale owners generate significant market rental premiums, indicating a potential brand effect. The effect of sales prices is mixed when buyers manage the property. We argue that large scale owners create a brand effect by reducing information asymmetry in the commercial real estate leasing market. The results show that the price and rental premiums associated with the ENERGY STAR designation might signal the brand effect to the market.

Abstract In February 2023, a Norfolk Southern (NS) train derailed in East Palestine Ohio. Several rail cars crashed off the tracks, releasing hazardous chemicals into two local creeks. Two days later, after calling for an evacuation of homes within one mile, the railroad performed a controlled burn-off of the chemicals, releasing a toxic plume spanning miles in multiple directions. We evaluate the effect of these events on house prices. For this case we conducted both a hedonic regression analysis and contingent valuation (CV) analysis. The regression analysis included over 3,000 house sales from 2018 to 2024, of which 98 sales took place in the Value Assurance Program (VAP) area soon after the chemical burn-off. Our CV looked at five different fact patterns with over 1,000 online survey responses. Overall, we found that residential sales prices in the VAP were down approximately 14% after the release event, compared with control properties. Additionally, results showed that impacted properties remained approximately 25% longer on the market than the control homes; this paper is among the first to show that days on market are impacted by a contamination event.

In this paper, we examine the impact of large-scale ownership on commercial real estate rent and selling price premiums.We also examine whether ENERGY STAR premiums found in the literature are a result of a signal for an ownership brand effect rather than the label itself. The results suggest that large-scale owners generate significant market rental premiums, indicating a potential brand effect. The effect of sales prices is mixed when buyers manage the property. We argue that large scale owners create a brand effect by reducing information asymmetry in the commercial real estate leasing market. The results show that the price and rental premiums associated with the ENERGY STAR designation might signal the brand effect to the market.