ULI Nashville: Practicing Heat Resilience in a Hot Market

Webinar Summary: Summer of 2022 was a scorcher – the 6th hottest on record with the 2nd hottest July on record and only four days in July that didn’t exceed 90 degrees. The impact on human health ranges from heat exhaustion and heat stroke to death – in the U.S., more than 1,300 deaths per year are caused by extreme heat. This makes extreme heat the most deadly weather event, even more than floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes, yet extreme heat is preventable. With trends pointing to hotter summers, some developers are leading on building for heat resilience. ULI Nashville hosted private sector developers to discuss their experience and results in building for heat resilience and how their lessons learned can apply in Nashville, Middle Tennessee, and across the South. Erin Hatcher, Vice President Sustainability, AMLI Residential, and Kimberly Pexton, Vice President Sustainability, JBG Smith, discussed planned and completed projects including: What resilience features were assessed and determined to be viable/implemented; How sustainable/resilient features for projects were financed and how the projects make financial sense, and Data/lessons learned on benchmarking of operating costs and for forecasting in markets with extreme temperatures.