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company cash flows at risk due to climate change

Between 15% and 20% of company cash flows are at risk, on average, because of climate change.

This is according to an analysis developed by global asset manager Schroders. As of March 31 of this year, Schroders is responsible for the management of £416.3 billion (€486.7 billion, $520.6 billion) of assets.

Says Schroders’ Andy Howard, global warming “is a real problem, not just a societal one but a financial one.”

This month Schroders has introduced a tool, a Climate Progress Dashboard, to track, based on 12 indicators, climate change progress. The indicators include coal production, carbon prices, corporate planning, renewable capacity, oil and gas investment, and political ambition.

The Schroders Climate Progress Dashboard will provide a snapshot of likely temperature rises based on the indicators and will help its fund managers “evaluate the challenges ahead”.

The Schroders Climate Progress Dashboard currently predicts that global temperatures are on course to rise by four degrees above pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

PKA, the Danish pension fund, has demanded that companies take action to protect their business models from climate change. Such action would include reducing their reliance on fossil fuels or moving towards greener energy. PKA is divesting “from certain companies involved in energy and carbon-intensive extraction methods, which we do not believe fit in a low-carbon economy.”

See:

“Schroders Launches Climate Progress Dashboard, Tracks Current Course Of 4°C Warming” | Joshua S. Hill, CleanTechnica, 19 July 2017

“Schroders launches Climate Progress Dashboard” | Schroders, 17 July 2017

“Schroders issues climate change warning” | Attracta Mooney, The Financial Times, 15 July 2017

“Danish pension fund PKA dumps Canadian oil” | Attracta Mooney, The Financial Times, 14 April 2017

#Schroders #assetmanagement #globalwarming #finance #risk #PKA #Denmark #climaterisk #resilience #realestate #business

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sudden heavy rains damage works in the Louvre

During the course of one hour late on Sunday evening, July 9, two inches (50mm) of rain fell on Paris during severe thunderstorms that swept across the region.

Several works in the collection of the Musée du Louvre are reported to have been damaged due to the effects of the sudden rainstorm:

  • two (“Spring” and “Fall”) of the works that make up Nicolas Poussin’s “Four Seasons” in the Sept-Cheminées room
  • “The Triumph of Mordecai” (1736) by Jean-François de Troy
  • works, housed on the second floor, by 17th-century French artists Georges de La Tour and Eustache Le Sueur

Water flowed into the mezzanine of the Denon wing also. This affected the rooms housing “Arts of Islam” and “From the Mediterranean Orient to Roman Times.” These rooms have been closed pending hygrometric stabilization

Le musée du Louvre a été touché par les intempéries d’une violence inédite qui ont frappé la région parisienne dans la nuit du 9 au 10 juillet et le 10 juillet au matin.

Les infiltrations d’eau ont entraîné la fermeture de certains espaces et l’évacuation préventive d’œuvres du département des Peintures et du département des Antiquités égyptiennes.

See:

“Violent Storms Invade the Louvre, Damaging Art by Poussin and Other Holdings” | Naomi Rea, Artnet.com, 17 July 2017

“Louvre masterpieces damaged in storm” | The Connexion, 16 July 2017

“Informations suite aux intempéries des 9 et 10 juillet 2017” | Louvre, 13 July 2017

 

#Louvre #NicolasPoussin #Jean-FrançoisdeTroy#GeorgesdeLaTour #EustacheLeSueur #ArtsofIslam #art #rain #CO2 #climaterisk #Paris

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art restitution, “conflicting realities,” & Clemens Toussaint

Marc Spiegler, now Global Director of Art Basel, wrote “an extensive profile” of art historian and art restitution specialist Clemens Toussaint in 2003. Spiegler’s article about Toussaint, The Devil and the Art Detective, appeared in Art + Auction in July of 2003. Spiegler considers this article to be among his “best ever.”

Art restitution is, in Mr. Spiegler’s words, “a minefield of ethical dilemmas and conflicting ‘realities.'” Toussaint’s work is sensitive, with passion, compelling argument, and, oftentimes, a wish for discretion on all sides. He is known to do detailed, thorough, impeccable research and has assisted clients recover paintings from collections and museums globally.

Prerequisites for restitution of works of art include a “united family front” (all known heirs need to be in agreement) and a detailed knowledge of a work’s provenance (exactly when, how, and where a work has changed hands and which country’s laws apply to each transaction).

Mr. Spiegler writes,

“An extensive profile of Clemens Toussaint, who at the time ranked among the most controversial men in the European art world. In part because he’s a tempestuous maverick in a milieu of complicit discretion. But also because art restitution is a minefield of ethical dilemmas and conflicting “realities.” Roaming from 1930s Germany to present-day Monte Carlo, this article ranks among my best ever.”

See:

“MarcSpiegler.com”

“The Devil and the Art Detective” | Marc Spiegler, Art and Auction, July 2003

For more about Clemens Toussaint and his work, see:

“Europe Celebrates Kazimir Malevich, a Pioneer in Abstract Art” | Kevin Holden Platt, The New York Times, 25 May 2016

“How Did a Stolen Malevich End Up at Sotheby’s” | Noelle Bodick, Blouin Artinfo, 4 November 2015

“Göring, Rembrandt and the Little Black Book” | Alan Riding, The New York Times, 26 March 2006

“A Monet Off the Met’s Wall Has a Controversial History” | Brooks Barnes, The Wall Street Journal, 3 May 2002

“Met to Sell Monet” | Martin Bailey for The Art Newspaper, Forbes, 1 May 2002

#art #ClemensToussaint #restitution #artrestitution #collections #MarcSpiegler #ArtBasel #KazimirMalevich #MetropolitanMuseumofArt #Sotheby’s

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PassivDom houses are very, very smart & very beautiful

PassivDom, a start-up based in Ukraine and California, is a tech-based manufacturing company.

PassivDom 3D prints self-learning modular houses, some of which are fully autonomous. “Autonomous” means “off the utility grid.” Solar energy is produced and can be stored in a battery connected to the house. Water is collected and filtered from humidity in the air. The house may feature an independent sewage system.

The manufacturing process works like this: The team develops a “map” for the 3D printers / seven-axel robots in its factories in Ukraine and California. The 3D printer / seven-axel robot prints the roof, floor, and walls layer by layer. The material used is composed of carbon fibers, polyurethane, resins, basalt fibers, and fiberglass. This material is six times stronger than steel.

Doors, windows, appliances, an alarm system, solar panels, and the septic, electrical, healing, cooling systems are then added – by people.

According to the PassivDom website, PassivDom has the highest thermal performance among residential buildings. PassivDom windows are the warmest in the world. PassivDom exceeds the energy efficiency requirements of both the Passive House Institute and LEED.

PassivDom provides a 40-year materials warranty for the preservation of thermal characteristics. There are no materials that will lose thermal conductivity.

A PassivDom house is not only a smart house, it is a “very, very smart house.” All devices are networked to the Internet of Things and can be controlled from a smart phone. The micro-climate system is self-learning, monitors oxygen and carbon dioxide, and maintains the temperature and humidity desired by the occupant.

And PassivDom houses are beautiful.

Wow.

See:

PassivDom

“A robot can print this $32,000 house in as little as 8 hours — take a look inside” | Leanna Garfield, Business Insider, 6 April 2017

#smart #smarthouse #PassivDom #Ukraine #California #tech #buildingtech #realestate #art #smartluxury #resilience #luxury #3Dprinting #autonomous #offgrid #solarenergy #electricity #water #CO2 #PassivHaus #LEED

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connecting the dots ・ why?

Why connect the dots between real estate, the arts, smart luxury, and resilience?

Because, as David Wallace-Wells has pointed out in “The Uninhabitable Earth”, that has quickly become New York Magazine’s most read article, ever, global warming is “worse than you think.”

Mr. Wallace-Wells believes, and I share his belief, that “the public does not appreciate the scale of climate risk.” We have not spent enough time contemplating “the risks beyond sea-level rise.” And, “that, when it comes to the challenge of climate change, public complacency is a … problem.”

We need to contemplate the risks, try to appreciate their scale, and try not be complacent.

Many of us live in houses or buildings of some shape and size, love works of art, perhaps speculate in the arts and real estate (buy for purposes of expected appreciation), and enjoy the craft, material, and sophistication of luxury. So, what about resilience?

Resilience is the ability to pick up, recover, and get through when the going gets tough. We all might need to grow our capacity for resilience. We might need also to adjust how we conduct our lives.

While “rising oceans are bad, in fact very bad; but fleeing the coastline will not be enough.” “Absent a significant adjustment to how billions of humans conduct their lives, parts of the Earth will likely become close to uninhabitable, and other parts horrifically inhospitable, as soon as the end of this century.”

So let’s keep reading and start, perhaps, adjusting our behaviors. A little bit at a time. Yes? In posts to come I will, step by step, dissect and curate information from Mr. Wallace-Wells’ opus magnum.

See:

“The Uninhabitable Earth, Annotated Edition” | David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine, 14 July 2017

#realestate #art #smartluxury #resilience #luxury

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art, museums, & climate risk | the Pérez Art Museum Miami

Museums, as stewards of cultural heritage, are in it for the long term. To safeguard the artistic, historic and scientific resources they hold in trust for the public, museums need to adapt to a world where change—and water—are the new normal.

Designing for Resilience, Elizabeth Merritt, founding director, Center for the Future of Museums, an initiative of the American Alliance of Museums

The Swiss architectural firm of Herzog & de Meuron designed what is now called the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). The museum is anchor for a 30-acre museum park on Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami. The Biscayne Bay location was provided by the City of Miami. Construction of the building cost $220 million. $100 million was provided by Miami-Dade voters in general obligation bond funding. $120 million came from private donors.

The museum of modern and contemporary art is dedicated to collecting and exhibiting international art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The museum holds the largest collection of contemporary Cuban art in the United States.

The National Climate Assessment of 2014 named Miami one of the U.S. cities most vulnerable to severe damage as a result of rising sea levels. According to the report, sea levels have risen eight inches since 1870. The report projects a further rise of one to four feet by the end of the century.

The National Climate Assessment of 2014 found that while melting Arctic and Antarctic ice and rising sea levels are threatening the entire American coastline, Miami is exceptionally vulnerable due to its natural geology.

The city of Miami is built on top of porous limestone. The limestone absorbs seawater. The rising sea waters are being absorbed into the city’s foundation. The water bubbles up through pipes and drains, encroaches on fresh water supplies and saturates infrastructure. County governments estimate that the damages could rise to billions or even trillions of dollars.

In such circumstances and given Miami’s geology, how is the Pérez Art Museum Miami designed to fulfill its responsibilities as a steward of art and cultural heritage?

The architecture has been designed to adapt to the climate of Miami. The new building, opened in 2013, was specifically designed to withstand hurricanes. The museum is raised on an elevated platform above the flood plain. The museum features the largest sheets of hurricane-resistant glass in the U.S. Art storage facilities are situated more than 46 feet above sea level. The museum’s backup-electricity system runs on generators. The generators are located on the third floor.

  • The first floor of the museum was elevated by Herzog & de Meuron above the 18-foot high-water mark left by Category 5 Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The elevation acts as a safety cushion for projected effects of climate change.
  • Gaps in the floors of the patio surrounding the museum allow water from rain, storm surge or flooding to drain into the parking garage, located underneath the museum.
  • A power generator is located on the third floor of the museum. Electricity to the building is ensured even if lower floors are affected by flooding. The generator has enough fuel for three days of use, and can be refueled by truck or barge (in case the roads are blocked).
  • Second-floor windows feature the largest panels of hurricane-resistant glass in the US (17.5 feet tall by seven feet wide, each weighing 2,500 pounds).
  • The teak entrance doors weigh 550 pounds each. They each feature a multi-prong pin system. The pin system locks the doors in several places to secure them against category-five hurricane winds.
  • The hanging gardens, inclusive of the mechanical system and irrigation system, are designed to withstand a category five hurricane.
  • Should a major hurricane head towards Miami, the museum maintains plans to de-install and place in storage as much of the art as possible, starting with the most sensitive works, such as particularly rare works on paper that are sensitive to humidity and temperature fluctuations.
  • The museum’s art storage facility is situated 46 feet above sea level. This is to ensure security from flooding and water damage. Storage HVAC is designed to handle humidity levels that might follow a storm event.

See:

“Jorge Pérez Donates $15 Million in Cash and Art to Miami Museum” | Hili Perlson, Artnet, 30 November 2016

“Designing for Resilience” | Elizabeth Merritt, Center for the Future of Museums, an initiative of the American Alliance of Museums, 11 August 2015

“Protecting Priceless Art from Natural Disasters” | John Whitaker, The Atlantic, 27 May 2015

“Trendswatch 2015” | Elizabeth Merritt, Center for the Future of Museums, an initiative of the American Alliance of Museums“

“Miami Finds Itself Ankle-Deep in Climate Change Debate” | Carol Davenport, The New York Times, 7 May 2014

“Pérez Art Museum” | Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering

National Climate Assessment

Pérez Art Museum | Wikipedia

 

#PérezArtMuseumMiami #Miami #Herzog&deMeuron #JorgePérez #art #artcollections #climaterisk #resilience #realestate #artstorage #electricity #powergeneration #carbondioxide #CO2 #risingsealevels

 

 

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David Zwirner ・forward-thinking art-world luminary

In a time of arguably increasing climate risk and concomitant regulatory risk, price risks, and prospective market adjustments, mega art dealer David Zwirner is a forward-thinking art-world pioneer and luminary. Mr. Zwirner has set a new environmental standard for art-related facilities while presenting a “a clean, elegant, modernist aesthetic that is very much about welcoming visitors today.”

During 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, more than five million gallons of water flooded the construction site of New York’s new Whitney Museum. In response, the engineering and construction of the museum building, the lobby of which is 10 feet above sea-level, and infrastructure were re-designed and re-engineered.

David Zwirner’s second Manhattan location, on West 20th Street, is situated in Chelsea close by the Hudson River. The 537 West 20th Street gallery opened in early 2013, mere months after Hurricane Sandy.

Designed by Annabelle Selldorf and design consultants Atelier Ten, the five-story, 30,000-square-foot structure is built to museum standards and to accommodate large-scale installations and the full range of artists the gallery represents. The gallery is also the first known commercial art gallery built to LEED Gold standards.

The building incorporates five green roof spaces, premium efficiency mechanical, maximized daylighting, and locally and responsibly-sourced materials.

Sound business sense.

See:

“Frick Collection Names Selldorf Architects for Its Renovation” | Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, 20 October 2016

“This Quietly Elegant Architect is Now the Darling of the Design World” | James Tarmy, Bloomberg, 5 June 2015

“Protecting Priceless Art from Natural Disasters” | John Whitaker, The Atlantic, 27 May 2015

“Annabelle Selldorf Designs the New David Zwirner Gallery” | Samuel Cochran, Architectural Digest, 30 April 2013

“David Zwirner Opens New Manhattan Gallery” | Tamara Warren, Forbes, 29 January 2013

“David Zwirner 20th Street,” New York, New York | Selldorf Architects

David Zwirner

Selldorf Architects | Architects

Atelier Ten | Environmental Design Consultants + Engineers

 

#art #artmarket #architecture #design #DavidZwirner #AnnabelleSelldorf #AtelierTen #WhitneyMuseum #Whitney #HurricaneSandy #climatechange #climaterisk #regulatoryrisk #marketadjustments #finance #LEED #LEEDGold

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Denver tracks & publicly reports annual commercial & multi-family building energy performance data

A city ordinance adopted by the Denver City Council in late 2016 requires commercial and multi-family buildings of 25,000-square-feet and over to track and publicly report their annual energy performance.

The deadline for property owners of larger buildings (50,000+ square feet) to file 2016 energy benchmarking reports is June 1. There is a city 90-day grace period for filing, ending on September 1.

Owners of smaller buildings, of 25,000 – 50,000 square-feet, are required to file their energy performance reports by June 2018.

According to the city, 57 percent of Denver’s greenhouse gas emissions are generated by large commercial and multifamily buildings.

Katrina Managan, Senior Advisor, Energy Efficiency, Denver Department of Environmental Health, reports that ”there are approximately 2,400 buildings over 50,000 square feet that need to comply this first year.”

The city of Denver plans to publish building energy performance data annually.

See:

“$2,000 penalty looms for Denver building owners who don’t say how much energy they’re using” | Adrian D. Garcia, Denverite, 11 July 2017

“Colorado signs on to U.S. Climate Alliance, joining states committed to exceeding Trump’s rejected Paris climate targets” | Bruce Finley, Denver Post, 11 July 2017

“Denver Imposes $2,000 Fine for Building Owners Who Don’t File Energy Benchmarking Reports” | Emily Holbrook, Energy Manager Today, 12 July 2017

#realestate #commercialrealestate #greenhousegasemissions #commercial #multi-family #energyefficiency #buildingenergyperformance #data #Denver #Colorado

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valuing climate-related risks, investing well, & avoiding stranded assets

The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD, @FSB_TCFD) has published a new report on June 29. The report is published as part of a G20 initiative led by the governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney and the former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg.

The report provides a framework for companies to disclose in their financial filings all of their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and describe the risks and opportunities caused by climate change under a range of potential scenarios. The objective of such disclosures would be to allow economies to properly value climate-related risks and to help minimize the risk, to investors, banks, and insurers, that market adjustments to climate change will be incomplete, late and potentially destabilizing.

Importantly, the report recommends that banks should disclose lending to companies with carbon-related risks.

Climate change presents global markets with risks and opportunities that cannot be ignored. The framework can be of assistance to investors (such as banks, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, investors in commercial real estate, and homeowners) as they evaluate the potential risks and rewards of a transition to a lower carbon economy and avoid investing in assets that might become stranded, non-performing (such as non-performing loans made to entities that are cash-strapped due to rising carbon costs or houses and buildings that themselves cannot perform and/or are difficult or impossible to sell).

While the report’s recommendations are intended to be adopted by all companies, extra guidance is given to the financial sector. Other sectors, likely to be most affected by climate change and/or the transition to a lower carbon economy, are also given extra guidance. The other sectors likely to be most affected by climate change and/or the transition to a lower carbon economy include energy, transportation, construction, and agriculture, food, and forestry.

Christian Thimann, Group Head of Regulation, Sustainability and Insurance Foresight, AXA Group and a member of the TCFD, observes that insurers “see the frequency and intensity of natural disasters linked to climate change augmenting every year.” “Insurers,” Dr. Thimann says,
consider a world of plus two degrees may still be insurable but a world of plus four degrees might not be.”

Dr. Thimann notes that while banks have a shorter outlook than insurers

  • Banks “too can use these recommendations because they will need to steer their lending between sectors aligned with a 2-degree world and sectors not aligned. They need to know which are the sectors with a high risk of stranded assets in the future and those with a low risk of stranded assets in the future.”

 

See:

“Banks should disclose lending to companies with carbon-related risks” | Michael Slezak, The Guardian, 29 June 2017

#TCFD #MarkCarney #BankofEngland #NYC #MichaelBloomberg #climatechange #climaterisk #strandedassets #banks #investors #finance #insurance #AXA #lowcarboneconomy #energy #transportation #construction #agriculture #food #forestry#realestate #homeownership #museums #artcollections #art

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21st c building design & construction ・re-exploring wood & rammed earth

While concrete, glass structures, polished stone walls, brick facades and steel beams now prevail in urban design, wood and rammed earth are getting attention.

The use of steel in urban buildings began with the production of steel in bulk. Mass production of steel was enabled by Henry Bessemer’s development of the Bessemer converter in 1857. Once steel could be produced in bulk, it became cheaper and easier to obtain.

The 10-story Home Insurance Building, completed in 1885 in Chicago, was the first building in the world to use structural steel in its frame. Due to its architecture and weight-bearing frame, the building is considered the world’s first “skyscraper.”

The 16-story Ingalls Building, built in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1903, became the world’s first reinforced-concrete skyscraper.

The production of steel and the production of concrete are, however, both energy intensive and carbon intensive. Steel and concrete have high levels of embedded energy. Neither steel nor concrete are renewable.

As of 2014, 54% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. The world’s urban population has grown rapidly, from 746 million in 1950 to 3.9 billion in 2014. The world’s urban population is expected to continue to grow – to 66% of the world’s population by 2050, surpassing six billion people by 2045.

With more people moving into urban areas, the demand for big buildings is likely to grow. The building industry (materials production, building technology, architecture, construction, …) is increasingly exploring the ratio of demand for buildings with the environmental impact of building materials.

Two building materials that are coming to attention are wood and rammed earth.

Wood is manufactured into large cross-laminated timber panels for purposes of tall building construction. Cross-laminated timber panels, a layered composite like a super-strong plywood, are made by gluing pieces of smaller wood together.

In order to build tall buildings, large wood panels that can be as large as 64 feet long,  eight feet wide, and 16 inches think  are engineered. Builders use concrete and steel only at high-stress locations like joints.

Architects are now able to build with timber, in tandem with precision digital manufacturing processes like CNC milling, to heights that have hitherto been unimaginable.

The environmental properties of cross-laminated timber panels make it even more attractive. As trees grow wood stores carbon dioxide, sequestering CO2 from the air. Michael Green of Michael Green Architecture in Vancouver, British Columbia, whose firm who recently completed T3, a seven-story building in Minneapolis that is now the tallest wooden building in the US, observes that wood is manufactured using solar power:

“Steel and concrete don’t grow back. They are not renewable materials. They are not even remotely renewable materials—they use massive amounts of energy in their creation, whereas the most perfect solar power system of making any material on Earth is the making of our forests.”

Rammed earth can be used for both residential and commercial buildings. Rammed earth walls are solid masonry walls. These walls are massive, built for the long term, and not easily replaced. That said, they are beautiful and contain a fraction of the embodied energy of manufactured wall products such as fired bricks or concrete blocks. Rammed earth walls also possess unique thermal qualities that keep residents cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The market for rammed earth now includes both residential and commercial buildings. Commercial buildings built with rammed earth walls include wineries, resorts, offices, and university buildings.

See:

“The Next Wave of Building Materials” | Emma Kantrowitz, CBRE, 6 July 2017

“Get Ready for Skyscrapers Made of Wood (Yes, Wood)” | Elizabeth Stinson, Wired, 30 May 2017

“Will Skyscrapers of the Future Be Built From Wood?” | Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian.com, 20 June 2016

“World’s population increasingly urban with more than half living in urban areas” | United Nations, 10 July 2014

Chadwick Dearing Oliver, Nedal T. Nassar, Bruce R. Lippke & James B.

McCarter (2014) Carbon, Fossil Fuel, and Biodiversity Mitigation With Wood and Forests, Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 33:3, 248-275, DOI:

10.1080/10549811.2013.839386

“History of the steel industry (1850-1970)” | Wikipedia

“Ingalls Building” | Wikipedia

“Home Insurance Building” | Wikipedia

Michael Green Architecture, Vancouver, British Columbia

T3, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Earth Structures Group

#architecture #design #smartluxury #construction #climaterisk #CO2 #energy #wood #crosslaminatedtimber #rammedearth #CNCmilling