Sustainability

Increasing Access to Biking and Walking Trails for All in Austin, Texas

A robust public/private partnership could further enable a bike trail and pedestrian boardwalk that bridges the lingering cultural divide between the east and west sides of Austin, Texas, a ULI Advisory Services panel said in August.

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ULI Report Reflects Decade of Progress in Improved Environmental Performance in the Built Environment

A new report from the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance shows that the real estate industry has made significant progress over the past 10 years in reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption while increasing asset value. Volume 10 of the Greenprint Performance Report™, which measures and tracks the performance of 8,916 properties owned by Greenprint’s members, demonstrates a 10-year improvement of 17 percent in energy use intensity, which is the annual energy consumption divided by gross floor area. The report also finds that Greenprint members are still on track to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030.

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ULI’s Greenprint Center for Building Performance Announces New Member CenterPoint Properties

CenterPoint Properties, a leading innovator in the investment, development, and management of industrial real estate and multimodal transportation infrastructure, has joined the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance (Greenprint). Greenprint is a worldwide alliance of the foremost real estate owners, investors, and financial institutions committed to improving the environmental performance of the global real estate industry, with a particular emphasis on reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.

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Responding to Record Heat Waves and Systemic Heat Effects in Washington, D.C

A week after the release of a new ULI report on urban heat effects and the built environment, a ULI Washington event focused on how the city is planning for and responding to urban heat issues. While Washington, D.C., is in many ways a leader on this issue, speakers agreed that equity issues need to be addressed in addition to specific policy changes.

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Recent Articles

  • What U.S. Cities Are Learning from Copenhagen’s Evolution

    August 8, 2019

    In June, a group of 125 of Denver’s public-, private-, and nonprofit-sector leaders came to study Copenhagen’s brand of sustainable urbanism with the Denver Downtown Partnership (DDP) Urban Exploration program. The DDP study group included 61 members of ULI Colorado, Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock, several Denver City Council members, and city and county staff members. The study tour explored the city of Copenhagen “through three lenses: livability, equity, and economic innovation, in which growth goes hand-in-hand with quality of life,” said one official.

  • ULI Research Explores Impact of Rising Temperatures, Excessive Heat on Urban Development

    Worldwide, this past July was the hottest month on record, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. A new ULI report, Scorched: Extreme Heat and Real Estate, notes that such rising temperatures and excessive heat waves are already affecting urban development and reviews strategies that can help mitigate the effects on communities.

  • What a Week in Miami Taught Me about Resilience

    August 5, 2019

    A ULI Advisory Services panelists shares learnings from his experience on a recent ULI Advisory Services panel working with the city of Miami and the Miami Downtown Development Authority on its waterfront resilience efforts.

  • ULI Advisory Services Panel to Make Recommendations for Implementing D.C.’s Ambitious Climate Goals

    Under the Clean Energy D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act, the District is planning to move entirely to renewable electricity by 2032, with the goal of cutting the city’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by that year as part of its broader commitment to becoming entirely carbon neutral by 2050. To meet those goals, building owners will be required to make energy retrofits on about half of the buildings in the city. To help owners prepare for these changes, ULI partnered with the DowntownDC Business Improvement District for an Advisory Services panel in July.

  • ULI Receives $200,000 Grant from the Energy Foundation

    July 31, 2019

    The Energy Foundation has awarded ULI, via the ULI Foundation, a $200,000 grant to promote activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of a partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Natural Resources Defense Council. With this grant, the Institute will facilitate the engagement of its district councils, which serve members at the local level, in activities related to the American Cities Climate Challenge.

  • In Brief: Washington, D.C., Named America’s Best City Park System for 2019

    July 29, 2019

    Washington, D.C., has the best city park system in the United States, according to the Trust for Public Land’s eighth annual ParkScore index, which was released in May by the nonprofit organization. Saint Paul ranked second, and three-time defending champion Minneapolis dropped to third.

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