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Kara Kokernak

Kara Kokernak is a senior director on the ULI Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate team and leads Decarbonization and Net Zero thought leadership, specifically focusing on ULI’s Net Zero Mission Priority “journey to zero” and workstreams around the real estate value chain for tenants, utilities, and embodied carbon.

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Resilience and Sustainability
ULI Continues Building Partnerships to Reduce Embodied Carbon with Developers, Architects, and Structural Engineers
The industry’s movement to reduce embodied carbon in buildings is advancing faster than it did with respect to operational carbon. And yet, there are still misunderstandings and missed opportunities for collaboration across stakeholders as they work to decarbonize.
August 5, 2024
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Kara Kokernak
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Resilience and Sustainability
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New York City
A New Paradigm for Smart and Connected Buildings to Address Utility Grid Stress and Drive Building Value
According to the World Green Building Council, buildings currently account for a staggering 39 percent of global emissions, while trillions of dollars’ worth of real estate assets are at risk due to climate-related disasters. At the same time, utility providers are struggling to scale infrastructure to meet growing energy demands spurred by economic growth and development and unprecedented temperature extremes resulting in higher than usual utility charges and devastating outages. Now more than ever, the industry’s progress toward net zero emissions and resilience is critical.
July 22, 2024
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Lian Plass
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Resilience and Sustainability
Tool for Carbon Accounting Offers Consistency and Measurement Across Construction Projects
How do construction projects measure and report carbon emissions? Across the industry, organizations are being tasked with carbon accounting, whether for corporate sustainability goals or for regulatory reporting requirements. Unfortunately, there isn’t a consistent industry-wide method to measure or report it.
May 31, 2024
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Marta Schantz
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Resilience and Sustainability
Advancing Green Power: ULI Convenes Real Estate and Electric Utility on Innovations and Opportunities in Colorado
As a growing number of real estate firms commit to decarbonizing their assets, securing green power is becoming an increasingly necessary step for achieving significant carbon reductions. For many owners, the most straightforward and cost-effective route to green power is sourcing directly through local utility providers. However, several barriers have made it difficult for real estate and utilities to collaborate and identify solutions for increasing the amount of green power flowing to the built environment, in ways that mutually benefits utility organizations.
April 26, 2024
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Kara Kokernak
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Resilience and Sustainability
Championing Net Zero Brings ULI a 2024 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award for Sustained Excellence
ULI has earned a 2023 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the fourth consecutive year. The award recognizes ENERGY STAR® partner businesses and organizations in good standing that demonstrate superior leadership, innovation, and commitment to environmental protection through energy efficiency.
April 23, 2024
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Marta Schantz
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Resilience and Sustainability
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London
2024 Global Sustainability Outlook: Top Five Themes in Real Estate
Despite economic and political uncertainties, a host of market pressures—such as growing connections between sustainability and financial performance, increasing regulations, extreme weather events, and the importance of health and social equity—are driving real estate companies to prioritize sustainability like never before.
January 11, 2024
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Victoria Oestreich
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Resilience and Sustainability
Six Myths: ULI Convenes Construction, Developer, Concrete, and Steel Industries to Accelerate Embodied-Carbon Reductions
When it comes to reducing embodied carbon emissions in the real estate sector, developers can’t do it on their own: they must partner with outside stakeholders to influence elements over which they don’t have direct control, including supply chain materials manufacturers.
November 17, 2023
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Kara Kokernak
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Best Practices
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Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
ULI Convenes Executives from Construction and Developer Industries to Build Stronger Partnerships to Reduce Embodied Carbon
The first ULI Executive Convening on Embodied Carbon—held on January 17th at ULI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and hosted by ULI’s Decarbonization Program—launched the first of many convenings to build stronger partnerships across the industry enabling accelerated advancement on sustainability improvements and beyond.
March 24, 2023
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Morgan Maloney
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