Gary Pivo

During his 35 year academic career at the University of Washington and University of Arizona, Dr. Pivo worked in the areas of responsible property investing, urban form, sustainable cities and urban water policy. His groundbreaking research at the intersection of sustainability and real estate has driven change in professional practice, public policy, and industry. It has been cited by thousands of scholars across many disciplines including urban planning and studies, transportation, environmental studies, public health, engineering, geography and economics. He is one of the earliest and most influential advocates for responsible and sustainable property investing - an approach that integrates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles and triple bottom line thinking into real estate investment decisions. His work bridges real estate finance, sustainable development, policy, and planning, making him a key figure in understanding how property investment and urban form can support environmental and social objectives while still achieving economic value.

Since 1998, Dr. Pivo has held professorships in Urban Planning and Natural Resources at the University of Arizona where he taught courses on land use planning, responsible real estate development, and sustainable cities. Near the end of his career he designed a new B.S. in Real Estate - the first of its kind focused on sustainable and socially responsible real estate. He retired and was appointed Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning in 2024. From 1987-2008 he was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington. 

In addition to his faculty posts, Dr. Pivo served in various administrative positions at UA including Dean of the Graduate College, Director of Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs, and Associate Dean of the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. He was also Chair of the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington. While Dean of the UA Graduate College he was recognized as Administrator of the Year by the UA Graduate & Professional Student Council. 

Dr. Pivo has published extensively on socially responsible property investing, sustainable urban water policy and sustainable urbanization (see google scholar and his cv on this webpage for complete documentation). His most influential and foundational contributions were some of the first papers showing how urban form influences sustainability through effects on travel behaviors such as walking, transit use and auto dependence, how real estate investors can and should contribute to the broader movement of socially responsible investing, and how the sustainability features of buildings can improve property values and investment returns while lowering mortgage default risk. In 2012 he and Professor Jeffrey Fisher received the Journal of Real Estate Research Legacy Award from the American Real Estate Society, which recognizes foundational research shaping real estate scholarship, for their paper entitled Income, Value, and Returns in Socially Responsible Office Properties. 

In 2015, Dr. Pivo became Deputy Director of the Urban Water Innovations Network (UWIN), a National Science Foundation Sustainability Research Network. UWIN was a consortium of multiple academic institutions and water industry partners with activities in six regions across the U.S. designed to address water challenges in a variety of contexts from coastal communities to high plain desserts.  Its activities included research, engagement, and educational programs addressing challenges that threaten urban water systems. The mission of UWIN is to create technological, institutional, and management solutions to help communities increase the resilience of their water systems and enhance preparedness for responding to water crises.

Dr. Pivo's research has formed the basis for several market innovations including the Real Capital Analytics Walk Score Commercial Property Price Indices, which was the first index to quantify the price value of walkability for commercial properties, the NCREIF Green/Sustainability Data Set that allowed institutional investors to monitor the financial performance of sustainable real estate and the Vert Global Sustainability Real Estate Fund, which for the first time allowed US investors to buy shares in a mutual fund composed of the world's most sustainable real estate investment trusts. Dr. Pivo's work also contributed to a major, multiyear project that created the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Tool for the US Economic Development Administration. The project involved more than 400 stakeholders and produced an online tool for assessing proposed investments, a Practitioner’s Guide, User’s Guide, and Casebook of TBL development examples, and one of the most read articles published to date in Economic Development Quarterly.

Dr. Pivo has addressed dozens of leading organizations including  the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative, BOMA Intl., the US and World Green Building Councils, the National Science Foundation, the National Building Museum, the Urban Land Institute, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His comments on issues have been carried by dozens of media outlets including The Economist, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio. 

Dr. Pivo has had an extensive record of consulting and public service including service as Special Assistant to the Washington State Growth Strategies Commission, which laid groundwork for the Washington State Growth Management Act, and more recently consulting for the City of Tucson on the effects of downtown tax incentives on gentrification and other issues. He also co-founded the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative Property Working Group, was co-founder and President of 1000 Friends of Washington (now Futurewise) and co-founder of the Responsible Property Investing Center (which became the ULI Responsible Property Investment Council). He also served on committees for many leading organizations including the World Green Building Council, the Congress for New Urbanism, the Global Reporting Initiative, the Harvard Initiative for Responsible Investment, and the National Institute of Building Sciences. 

Dr. Pivo is an alumnus of the U.S. Presidential Management Fellows Program and holds a B.A. in Social Ecology from the University of California, Irvine, a Master’s in Regional Planning from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from U.C., Berkeley.

Although retired from regular faculty duties, Dr. Pivo welcomes contacts from students and others with similar interests.