Last month, Jonathan Rose spoke at Washington DC’s National Building Museum on Green and Affordable Neighborhoods (see the video of his talk above). Rose, a real estate developer who specializes in creating high-density sustainable mixed-income urban developments, talks about the challenges and threats posed by climate change and the critical role of mass transit in creating green communities. He states that we should “stop subsidizing sprawl because it’s environmentally irresponsible” and that “the solution is to develop higher density greener communities that are gathered around mass transit”.

Once the havoc of the mortgage crisis subsides and the U.S. real estate industry begins to put itself back together, many developers would be wise to look to Rose – who continues to make a successful career out of building environmentally friendly and socially responsible developments – as their model.