Sustainable Land Development Today - January 2008 - (Page 24) Sustainable Land Development International Technology to enable project teams to achieve greater profitability, environmental stewardship and social equity; ■ Best Practices with an eye to new trends, processes and procedures. “SLDI is in development and will soon be unveiling a number of innovative technology initiatives aimed at furthering holistic land development processes and bringing qualified professionals together to facilitate sustainable projects,” Wernke explained. The soon-to-be-released SLDI DealMaker™ web-enabled technology is just such an initiative. Wernke indicated that additional details will be forthcoming in the near future. “Further, land-development project teams need a set of best practices that address the variety of issues and can be used to effectively drive project planning, finance, design, entitlement, construction, and marketing as well,” he said. “The SLDI Certified Project™ technology delivers an industry-developed set of holistic best practices with the opportunity for projects to achieve SLDI Certified Sanctuary™ status.” Also in the works is the potential for financial incentives to the implementation of SLDI best practices. “We are in communication with some of the major financial institutions with multi-billion dollar funds allocated for sustainable development that will provide preferred access to a certified project,” Wernke said. Discussions are also taking place with insurance companies. Sustainable projects will inherently bring less risk, so there is the potential for the association to lobby for preferred treatment of SLDI certified projects. As SLDI certification evolves, there are plans to go beyond projects and certify sustainable communities and beyond. “Ultimately, it will be really important to look at individual watersheds and begin to define what the best practices are to achieve the restoration of those watersheds,” Wernke said. “Developers and the development community, who not only benefit substantially from the overall health of ■ those watersheds, but directly impact them through their work, are ideally positioned to help spearhead watershed restoration on local levels. Not only is this vitally important work for the industry, it presents a unique opportunity to begin to position land development professionals as the absolute heroes of our time in the eyes of the public.” Observations Heather Burkert, of H. Burket & Co. of Bolivia, N.C., welcomed the SLDI concept, especially the element that promotes more interaction between the professions involved in the development process, from civil engineers to landscape architects and planners, etc. By encouraging greater communication between these stakeholders, where each profession becomes more knowledgeable of the challenges, work and purposes of the others, the entire process will improve. But she is predicting it will take time to take hold. “Not everybody is going to come to the table. It has been my experience that some of the disciplines do not respect the others. They don’t want to change the way they’ve done things,” she said. “I think that is the greatest hurdle, to get people past themselves to see a bigger vision.” Chuck Hoskins, director of real estate for American Development Industries in Charlotte, N.C., said SLDI could revolutionize the land develop- ment industry, especially through its focus on the developer. By profitably satisfying the needs of people without damaging the environment, those key stakeholders will be in the driver’s seat to change the concept of the development industry. “They’re the ones that will ultimately get it out to the public and help with the buy-in,” Hoskins said. “They will sell it as a value added feature and start changing public opinion.” History in the Making “I predict that in the future, this will prove to be a truly historic time for our industry and it’s absolutely the perfect time to launch a new organization when practically everything in the real estate industry is in a downward mode,” Mock said. He believes the time is right for the industry to do some self-analysis to determine what it has done right, what it has done wrong and take responsibility for those things. It must then step up to take its rightful position as the industry responsible for the survival and sustainability of civilization. “There have been plenty of examples of previous civilizations that have come and gone, who have been at the same crossroads and taken the wrong turn and they did not achieve sustainability,” Mock said. “We have the opportunity now to make the right decision at the right time. I’m confident that we will.” SLDT SLDI will provide a variety of information and knowledge delivery services, including: Sustainable Land Development Today™ magazine. Sustainable Urban Redevelopment™ magazine. ■ Generation7™ magazine. ■ SLDI News Service™ email newsletter. ■ SLDI Knowledge Project™ sustainable development online encyclopedia. ■ SLDI Industry Tracker™ email service. ■ SLDI Certified Land Development Professional education program. ■ Plus…original book titles, research reports, and more. ■ ■ SLDI will also continue to produce numerous events and relationship-building opportunities through its Land Development Breakthroughs™ leadership conferences and workshops held throughout the country. 24 January 2008 Sustainable Land Development Today
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