The Real Estate Institute of BC’s 2007 Conference, Climate Change and Impacts on Real Estate

The goal of the conference is to prompt thinking about new ways of dealing with climate change and its impact on real estate as it relates to planning, developing, selling and insuring properties. 

Keynote Speakers are: Dr. Stephen Sheppard and Nicolas Heap. Dr. Sheppard teaches  sustainable landscape planning, aesthetics, and visualization in the Faculty of Forestry and Landscape Architecture program at UBC. He directs a research group using perception-testing and interactive 3D visualization tools. He has authored two books on visual simulation. Dr. Sheppard will discuss future visioning of local climate change scenarios.   Nicholas Heap is a policy analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation and has been working to advance progressive energy and climate change solutions within British Columbia. REIBC has commissioned the David Suzuki Foundation to prepare a report that will assess the risks climate change poses to business-as-usual infrastructure and urban development in BC.

Other speakers include:

• Dr. Bill Rees, policy and planning implications
• Chris Corps, building green
• Lee Davis, financing green buildings
• Dr. Denise Neilsen, implications for crop production
• Dr. Stewart Cohen, water management
• Rob Buchan, sustainable neighbourhood development
• Arthur DeJong, Whistler Blackcomb adaptation and mitigation strategies
• Glen McGillivray, catastrophic loss reduction
• Janine North, pine beetle infestation impacts
• Lindsay Olson, insurance industry addresses risks and opportunities