As concern about global warming grows, one of the hottest trends in real estate is the development of environmentally sustainable buildings. But in the rush to “go green,” owners, developers, contractors and design professionals may take risks that negatively affect profitability and facility performance.

To explore ways to minimize these risks, the Real Estate Center at DePaul University and the Alberti Group LLC will co-sponsor a conference, “Managing Risk in Sustainable Building: Policy, Performance & Pitfalls,” from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 7 and 8 at the University Club, 76 E. Monroe St., Chicago.

The program features nationally recognized speakers on economics and climate-change policy and more than a dozen industry experts, who will engage in cross-disciplinary discussions of legal, legislative, insurance, architecture, construction, real estate valuation and forensic analysis issues pertaining to sustainable building, with emphases on performance-based outcomes and decreasing risk.

Susanne Cannon, the Douglas and Cynthia Crocker Endowed Director of the Real Estate Center at DePaul, will co-chair the conference with Ujjval K. Vyas, principal and founder of the Alberti Group, a consultancy that advises clients on emerging real estate issues, including sustainability. Vyas also teaches a course in sustainable building at DePaul’s business school.

“Everywhere I go I seem to run into discussions or presentations about sustainable building, and it is difficult to sort the marketing hype from the science and technology,” Cannon said. “The increasing pressure to ‘go green’ is causing some people to make decisions without fully evaluating the costs, benefits and risks. To help industry professionals avoid mistakes, we will gather leading experts to address questions that include: what are the appropriate ethical, technical, social and economic frameworks to calibrate the costs and benefits of going green? What happens if anticipated green benefits fail to meet expectations? Who bears the risk of failure as the project moves from concept through design and completion? And how can sustainability move from this year’s hot trend toward becoming standard practice, if risk is not brought into the equation?”

The keynote speakers will be Roger H. Bezdek, president, Management Information Services Inc., and Roger A. Pielke Jr., professor, environmental studies program, University of Colorado, who also is a fellow with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).

Bezdek has more than 30 years of consulting and management experience serving private industry, academia and the federal government in the areas of environmental issues, energy efficiency, renewable energy, and regulation. His address, “Implications of Environmental Forecasting for the Sustainable Building Industry,” will begin at 8:15 a.m. Feb 7.

An expert on the policy and politics of science in decision making, Peilke was director of CIRES’ Center for Science and Technology Policy Research from 2001 to 2007 and previously worked as a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Pielke will discuss “Global Warming, Risk Management and Insurance” at 8:15 a.m. Feb. 8.

For the full conference schedule and registration, visit the Web site: http://realestate.depaul.edu/. The conference fee is $850 if registered by Jan. 7 and $950 after Jan. 7. For more information, call the Real Estate Center at 312/362-5906.