Given the pressing challenges real estate is facing globally on advancing building decarbonization, ULI is honored to announce that 10 District and National Councils have been selected to participate in the fourth Net Zero Imperative (NZI) Cohort. NZI is a multiyear initiative to accelerate decarbonization in the built environment and is a significant aspect of ULI’s work to advance its net zero mission priority.
Thanks to a generous donation from Owen Thomas and additional gifts from Lynn Thurber, Joe Azrack, Franz Colloredo-Mansfeld, and Dan Cashdan, the NZI began in summer 2021 as a five-year cohort program that sponsors ULI technical assistance panels (TAPs) in localities to help public and private sectors codevelop a path forward for decarbonization of the built environment. Each year, ULI District and National Councils can apply to be part of an NZI cohort to receive funding and headquarters support for either a net zero technical assistance panel or a post-TAP implementation effort building upon the original TAP’s priority recommendations.
In addition to the technical assistance efforts, NZI participants collaborate in a global cohort that shares best practices and solves problems together. Local champions continue to encourage implementation and follow-through of the resulting recommendations. ULI research staff also pulls key themes to create global resources that help the wider real estate industry decarbonize.
“The energy is palpable around real estate’s interest and urgency to act on climate—and partnerships with the public sector enable a stronger business case and coordinated efforts at scale to decarbonize,” says Marta Schantz, co-executive director of the ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate. “I’m thrilled to see the ULI Net Zero Imperative’s Cohort 4 participants address important local net zero challenges with globally relevant solutions.”
Find out more about the NZI program on ULI’s website here and by watching a program overview video here. Building on the past successes of the three previous ULI Net Zero Cohorts, ULI is also proud to continue to expand the ULI Net Zero Compendium web page with valuable resources on the journey to net zero.
NZI Cohort 4 participants will lay out actionable steps for local real estate owners, public sector leaders, and broader stakeholders to reduce carbon emissions in the built environment to reach net zero.
ULI Atlanta will coordinate one industry workshop (or more) that will bring together experts with experience in jurisdictions, that have implemented embodied carbon policies, as well as people knowledgeable about Atlanta’s zoning policies. This panel will include professionals involved in policy development, city officials responsible for enforcement, developers/architects/contractors who will be affected by new embodied carbon zoning codes, and consultants specializing in embodied carbon analysis and reporting. The industry workshop will result in recommendations for how Livable Buckhead should adapt zoning codes and how to support the development community in the process.
ULI Chicago will help fund the development of case studies of two multifamily decarbonization retrofit pilot projects being funded by the city of Chicago. The case studies will document the work done to help encourage and guide future retrofit projects. The case studies are expected to include a summary of the design and construction choices, costs, pre- and post-retrofit energy consumption and carbon emissions, and tenant quality-of-life impacts. Slipstream will be responsible for data evaluation; ULI Chicago will collaborate with the city of Chicago and Illinois Green Alliance to craft the case study document based on Slipstream’s work.
