How Real Estate Development Can Boost Urban Health

How can real estate development generate both profit and positive social impact?

A public health technique called health situation analysis brings a systematic approach to defining, measuring, and addressing public health challenges in a context-sensitive way. When applied to commercial real estate development, and coupled with cost-benefit testing and effective community engagement, it can reengineer the public approval process by anchoring social impact in neighborhood health and well-being in ways evident to community members. This can help developers craft real estate projects that generate new value by rooting community well-being in place.

In SSIR’s fall 2023 issue, Matthew Kiefer, a director of Goulston & Storrs, and a lecturer at Harvard University Graduate School of Design has joined with Adele Houghton, president of Biositu, LLC, and a lecturer at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to explore how applying health situation analysis can redefine value in real estate so that the most profitable project becomes the one that provides the greatest benefits to population and planetary health. Click here to read.

Click here for an interview with Matthew and Adele for more insights on this topic.

Click here to listen to Matthew and Adele on The Sustainable City Podcast.