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The companies in the UII are engaging collaboratively with cities upstream in the planning process, demonstrating the value of the early involvement of business and showing how a multisector group of leading companies can help cities find integrated solutions to interconnected challenges,” he said.

The “solution landscape” presents a menu of potential options for cities to address their key sustainability challenges. Lynch said one of the main success factors is the opportunity for direct and open dialogue. “Business adds value by being involved in the beginning, looking at the big plan, and looking at the issues landscape and challenges,” he said. WBCSD decided to work with multiple companies as opposed to a more ad hoc engagement to encourage the idea that it was business, not just individual companies working with cities.

The WBCSD expects that companies will use the landscape reports to refine their own approaches to working with these cities, targeting specific challenges and opportunities.

One significant challenge with deploying sustainable infrastructure solutions in cities is the vastly different time cycles used by business and government.

“Our experience is that building trust is critical.

there’s a “need for better coordination and understanding among governments, industries, and NGOs so that cities holistically plan for and build the infrastructure of tomorrow rather than create an infrastructure of mismatched components and potentially stranded assets.

“The aging population is the fastest-growing cohort, yet most of our cities are designed by men for young men in commerce,” he noted. How will women, children, and the elderly thrive in those cities?

At BSR, we know that when business engages stakeholders proactively, the insights gained will lead to more informed decision-making, more valuable collaboration, and more inspired business models.

The sooner meaningful engagement is at the forefront of the sustainable urban infrastructure agenda, the sooner we can hit fast-forward and have a chance at truly sustainable growth.

specific aims focused on shareholder interests

Like other transactional aspects of sustainability, most notably supply chain issues, getting the incentives right allows for greater transparency, better decision-making, and more “sustainable” sustainability solutions.

NGOs and civil society organizations can develop credible standards, decipher local issues, and create the environment that supports sustainable urban growth.

Business can deploy systems that address real social and environmental challenges — along with the partnership of government and civil society

Government policies can create income distribution, economic and social mobility, the right incentives for the private sector to invest, space for truly engaged discussion, and a commitment to longer-term sustainability strategies.

City-focused initiatives, lead by NGOs and the private sector, are drawing more attention to the clear opportunities, but the results are still lagging behind the pace of the growing challenges. While innovation is important for developing sustainability solutions, technologies and infrastructure systems that will help achieve sustainable growth already exist. Companies that provide infrastructure systems and components for energy, buildings, and transportation, must push fast-forward to deploy these technologies faster. They can start by collectively understanding the challenges and the role that each stakeholder sector can play in support of sustainable growth:

At BSR, we know that when business engages stakeholders proactively, the insights gained will lead to more informed decision-making, more valuable collaboration, and more inspired business models. The challenges are large, but the quiet and unstoppable megatrends are larger. The sooner meaningful engagement is at the forefront of the sustainable urban infrastructure agenda, the sooner we can hit fast-forward and have a chance at truly sustainable growth.

Per capita economic activity increases 10 percent with every 5-percentage-point increase in urban population.

Just like in corporations, setting goals and having a vision proves to be an essential start for cities that want to engage business. The WBCSD Urban Infrastructure Initiative (UII)

“Cities are looking at sustainability as their strategy,”

The global infrastructure and technology firm Siemens also entered the fray with its Green City Index, which ranks more than 120 global cities on a variety of environmental dimensions. Cities at the bottom have the greatest opportunities, and the ones at the top have the most lessons to offer

“I talk to cities about their strategy and goals just like I would with a company. City CSOs are making the same decisions as companies and have very similar challenges with internal engagement.

Matthew Lynch, the project lead, said one of the main success factors is the opportunity for direct and open dialogue. “The companies in the UII are engaging collaboratively with cities upstream in the planning process, demonstrating the value of the early involvement of business and showing how a multisector group of leading companies can help cities find integrated solutions to interconnected challenges,”

encourage the idea that it was business, not just individual companies working with cities.

The WBCSD expects that companies will use the landscape reports to refine their own approaches to working with these cities, targeting specific challenges and opportunities.

Kate Brass, GE Energy’s ecomagination program manager, said there’s a “need for better coordination and understanding among governments, industries, and NGOs so that cities holistically plan for and build the infrastructure of tomorrow rather than create an infrastructure of mismatched components and potentially stranded assets."

Check out the great new flyer from Hamiltonians Against Neighborhood Displacement (HAND) about how creative city policies are causing displacement in Hamilton, Ontario.  If you are interested in contacting them please let us know.

Partners are critical to the future success and image of a public space improvement project.

They can be local institutions, museums, schools and others.

The vision needs to come out of each individual community.

The best spaces experiment with short term improvements that can be tested and refined over many years! Elements such as seating, outdoor cafes, public art, striping of crosswalks and pedestrian havens, community gardens

encountering obstacles, because no one in either the public or private sectors has the job or responsibility to “create places.”

Starting with small scale community-nurturing improvements can demonstrate the importance of “places” and help to overcome obstacles.

allowed tax-deferred exchanges for "tenancy in common" or "TIC" property transactions. Now 1031 exchanges were permitted not just for single-owner properties but also for multiowner, professionally managed real estate assets.

Between 2003 and 2008, Section 1031 investors poured more than $12.5 billion into various multiowner TIC properties ranging from shopping centers, office buildings, industrial buildings, apartments, and free-standing assets

With no available liquidity to fund like-kind property purchases, the 1031 market came to a screeching halt.

Delaware Statutory Trusts

DST deals are simpler for investors to understand, more nimble at critical life-cycle junctures, better suited to satisfy investor diversification needs, and, perhaps most importantly when it comes to putting a deal together, much easier for lenders to trust.

Centralized Management: In contrast to TIC, the DST structure puts all decision making in the hands of a trustee, centralizing the decision-making process. Furthermore, DSTs protect individual investors from personal liability and reduce deal documentation to a single agreement -- a trust agreement.

Smaller Investment Minimums: Although a TIC deal is limited to 35 investors, DST programs have no such mandated ceiling, with the only practical limit being that anything more than 2,000 investors triggers Securities and Exchange Commision reporting under the 2012 JOBS Act. As a result, TIC deals often have large minimum investments, whereas investors can buy into DST programs with smaller outlays.

Diversified Investments: Although TICs are constrained in the value of real estate that can be purchased by up to 35 investors, the pool of assets in a DST structure can be much larger. With more money available for investment, DSTs can afford to diversify assets.

Summing Up the DST Benefits: Simply put, an investor looking to do a like-kind property exchange gets a wealth of benefits under the DST structure. He enjoys the traditional tax deferral allowed under 1031 exchanges. Additionally, by executing a single trust document and for a comparatively small investment, he owns a piece of a diversified portfolio of real estate managed by a professional. And he is protected from personal liability.

For one thing, it mandates the unanimous consent of all owners for decisions such as property sales, refinancing and leases -- a management headache when there are many investors.

Similar to a public REIT, assets in a DST vehicle are not aggregated by blind pool methodology as they are in a non-listed REIT, but instead are specifically identified by a sponsor, and disclosed to all prospective investors.