Climate Risk Budgeting Gains Ground at Greenbuild Conference

Designers and consultants pressed firms to integrate carbon and resilience costs at project inception rather than treating climate disruption as an episodic expense.

By the Family Office Real Estate Daily Desk·Thursday, November 5, 2026·2 min read

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How should real estate developers and owners integrate climate risk and carbon costs into project budgets from the start?

At the U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild conference, held Oct. 20-23 in New York City, designers and consultants argued that carbon and resilience costs must be integrated at project inception rather than treated as episodic expenses. American Institute of Architects 2026 President Illya Azaroff cited $362 billion in 2025 losses to infrastructure and buildings from climate disasters, with a cascading global effect of approximately $2.3 trillion. Sustainable data center design and community engagement also emerged as central themes.

Key facts

American Institute of Architects 2026 President Illya Azaroff said losses to infrastructure and buildings due to climate change disasters and storms in 2025 totaled an estimated $362 billion, with a cascading effect of about $2.3 trillion globally.
LEED v. 5, released in April 2025, includes a new credit for climate risk assessments, according to U.S. Green Building Council President Peter Templeton.
Aaron Woodward, principal and national head of sustainability at Rider Levett Bucknall, said sustainability needs to be an early project criteria integrated at inception because estimates are already set by conceptual design.
Michael Hopper, associate partner at LERA Consulting Structural Engineers, said a voided post-tensioned slab design at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts in Los Angeles resulted in 47% less carbon, and optimized layouts can reduce embodied carbon in the slab by up to 56%.
Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said the state invests more than $1 billion in public funding annually through agency and utility programs, saving New York residents more than $2.3 billion annually on energy bills.
Daniel Zarrilli, former New York City chief resilience officer and now a vice president at Moffat & Nichol, said communities are not prepared for climate change impacts already affecting them, referencing conditions dating to Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

Climate Risk Budgeting Gains Ground at Greenbuild Conference — Image: editorial illustration · Story sourced from ENR

The U.S. Green Building Council's Greenbuild conference, held Oct. 20-23 in New York City, centered on two themes: building sustainable data centers that can win community support, and integrating climate risk into project budgets from inception. Industry speakers said firms can no longer afford to treat climate disruption as an episodic expense or carbon as a free input.

Losses to infrastructure and buildings due to climate change disasters and storms totaled an estimated $362 billion in 2025, with a cascading effect of about $2.3 trillion globally, American Institute of Architects 2026 President Illya Azaroff said. Designers already have the ability to design for resilience and functional recovery, he said.

Aaron Woodward, principal and national head of sustainability at consulting firm Rider Levett Bucknall, said sustainability needs to be an early project criterion. By the time a project reaches conceptual design, estimates are already set, he said. Items such as carbon resilience, energy efficiency and long-term building performance need to be integrated at inception.

Woodward said it is far better to consider these factors now, especially from a cost perspective, and influencing fundamental decisions from the outset brings solutions to the forefront. The industry needs to look beyond first cost and focus on making the right investment decisions today by establishing sustainability and performance objectives in the owner's project requirements, he said.

Linnea Brudenell, RSP Architects associate principal and director of impact, sustainability and climate resilience, recommended designing for the project's bad day by modeling multiple risks that can compound, such as extreme heat, drought, wildfires and power grid outages. Understanding how clients can invest in mitigating their biggest vulnerabilities helps align the conversation with business growth priorities and business strategies, she said. Tools such as the World Economic Forum Global Risk Assessment and FEMA's Resilience Analysis Planning Tool can help identify risk.

Daniel Zarrilli, former New York City chief resilience officer and now a vice president at design consultant Moffat & Nichol, said communities are not prepared for climate change impacts already affecting them. One of the main things that struck him after Superstorm Sandy in 2012 is how little the world is built for the changes that are now upon us, and that is not a future risk, Zarrilli said. Whether it is heat, rain, coastal storms or sea level rise, cities like New York find themselves on the front lines and have been making investments to reduce that risk, but there is so much more to do, he said.

Council President Peter Templeton said LEED v. 5, released in April 2025, includes a new credit for climate risk assessments. The council wants to make sure it is looking at the opportunities, ensuring greater resilience and addressing climate risk, which is front and center in every community around the globe, but particularly in cities like New York City, which has been directly impacted by flooding, heat and other issues communities want to be better prepared for, he said.

The Deployment Angle

Family Office Real Estate Daily Desk · our analysis, not the source's

Family offices holding core real estate need to reopen underwriting models and add two line items: the cost of resilience retrofits and the insurance-premium delta for unmitigated climate risk. The Greenbuild speakers made clear that standard pro formas—built on historic weather data and treating carbon as free—no longer reflect replacement reserves or casualty exposure. If a consultant prices extreme-heat and grid-outage mitigation at the feasibility stage, that cost is a capital expense amortized over the hold. If the same measure is deferred until the first heat event shuts down operations, it becomes an emergency repair charged to reserves and often triggers a special assessment or a loan draw.

The $362 billion in 2025 climate-related building losses cited by the AIA translates to higher insurance premiums, stricter underwriting, and in some coastal and wildfire markets, withdrawn coverage altogether. A family office buying a logistics portfolio in the Sun Belt or a multifamily asset in a flood zone should model the insurance cost as if the property were uninsurable, then buy down that exposure with rooftop solar, on-site battery storage, and flood barriers. The premium savings over ten years often exceed the up-front capital, and the asset becomes financeable when peers cannot get loans.

For new construction or value-add acquisitions, write sustainability and resilience objectives into the owner's project requirements before appointing an architect. That forces the cost consultant to include energy-efficiency measures and resilience features in the base estimate rather than treating them as optional upgrades. A sponsor that waits until schematic design to add climate risk will pay change-order pricing and compress the construction schedule. The Greenbuild consensus was that deferring these decisions is the expensive path, not the economical one.

Questions this story answers

01What is the financial case for integrating climate resilience costs at the start of a real estate project?

Aaron Woodward of Rider Levett Bucknall said it is far better to consider carbon resilience, energy efficiency and long-term building performance at project inception because estimates are already established by conceptual design. Illya Azaroff of the AIA added that 2025 climate disaster losses totaled an estimated $362 billion, with a cascading global effect of approximately $2.3 trillion, calling that 'the true cost of what we're facing.'

02How can structural engineers reduce embodied carbon in concrete buildings today?

Michael Hopper of LERA Consulting Structural Engineers said a voided post-tensioned slab design at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts in Los Angeles used recycled plastic void forms to reduce non-structural concrete, achieving 47% less carbon. Hopper added that optimized layouts using various void form systems, concrete strengths and post-tensioning can reduce embodied carbon in the slab by up to 56%, bringing concrete in line with the environmental benefits of mass timber.

03What tools are recommended for assessing climate risk on a specific property or project?

Linnea Brudenell, associate principal at RSP Architects, recommended the World Economic Forum Global Risk Assessment and FEMA's Resilience Analysis Planning Tool to identify risk. Brudenell also advised cross-referencing First Street Foundation's open-source, GIS-enabled climate risk property tool and data points such as the percentage of a population reliant on electricity-dependent medical devices.

04Why are investors reluctant to fund climate resilience retrofits, and how should that challenge be framed?

Sarah Kapnick, global head of climate advisory at J.P. Morgan, said some firms are risk-averse or unwilling to make capital outlays proactively for problems that have not yet materialized. Kapnick said the discussion of resilience requires building projection strategies for near-term and long-term conditions that have never been seen before but are known to be coming due to physics.

05What is New York State doing to fund energy efficiency and electrification in its existing building stock?

Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, said New York has more than 6 million buildings already standing, with 54% of New York City's building stock built before 1947. Harris said the state currently invests more than $1 billion in public funding annually through the agency and utility programs, saving New York residents more than $2.3 billion annually on energy bills.

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