ULI’s Urban Resilience program is focused on how buildings, cities and communities can be more resilient to the impacts of climate change and other environmental vulnerabilities.

From sea level rise to heat waves, from storm surge to drought, the many impacts of climate change threaten the built environment in ways that have serious consequences for the health, viability, and economic vitality of our cities. The real estate industry is increasingly recognizing the physical and transition risks which arise from climate change, and adopting practices to better understand and mitigate climate impacts. Climate adaptation and resilience are also increasingly central to city planning, especially given that communities which have been historically marginalized by land use policies face disproportionate risk as climate events become increasingly regular and severe.

The Urban Resilience program works with ULI members to provide technical assistance, advance knowledge through research, and catalyze the adoption of transformative practices for real estate and land use policy. A central goal is ensuring that efforts to enhance resilience not only reduce vulnerability to climate impacts, but also strengthen cities overall, enhancing environmental performance, economic opportunity and social equity.

The program’s work builds from the expertise and perspectives of the ULI membership, responding to interests and trends identified by District Councils, Product Councils and other member networks. Areas of work include:

• Research – The program’s research addresses topics relevant to climate risk and resilience, including industry trends, land use tools and specific climate hazards. Key themes include understanding the business case for resilience, and how land use strategy, real estate investment and building design can support climate adaptation.
• Technical Assistance – The Urban Resilience program regularly partners with cities and community-based organizations to advise on how to enhance resilience through land use and development approaches, hosting multi-day workshops called Technical Assistance Panels (TAPs) and Advisory Services Panels (ASPs).
• Convenings – The Urban Resilience program brings together ULI members, leading resilience stakeholders, and city officials nationwide to share best practices and build a network of leaders committed to enhancing resilience in the built environment.
• District Council partnerships – Resilience is best tackled at the local level. The Urban Resilience program helps ULI District Councils carry out local, member-initiated resilience projects, including technical assistance panels, research initiatives, community engagement projects, design workshops, demonstration projects, mapping projects, and others.

The Urban Resilience program welcomes ULI members to get involved as subject matter experts, panelists, volunteers or otherwise. The program also welcomes outreach from other potential partners in research, technical assistance and convenings. For more information, reach out to us at [email protected] or visit the ULI Navigator. To access recent research, technical assistance projects for cities and webinars, visit the Urban Resilience reports page or the ULI Knowledge Finder.