Urban Land Institute to Partner with 100 Resilient Cities, Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation to Help Improve Resilience of Urban Areas Globally
The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has announced a partnership with100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation(100RC), becoming a part of their Platform of Partners. In this capacity, ULI will be offering expertise on building for resilience to a select group of 100RC cities, as they design and implement their comprehensive Resilience Strategies.
The Platform Partners are a vital component of 100RC’s efforts, providing cities with tools they need to prepare for, withstand, and bounce back from acute shocks such as hurricanes, fires, and floods, as well as ongoing stresses such as water shortages, homelessness, and unemployment. Current Platform Partners represent a wide array of private sector, public sector, non-governmental organization, and academic community leaders.
“In an increasingly complex and challenging world, cities need partnerships with organizations such as ULI to withstand the shocks and stresses of the 21st century,” said Michael Berkowitz, president of 100 Resilient Cities. “By providing advisory services to our network cities, ULI is leading by example, and is helping to build a global resilience movement.”
ULI is a global, multidisciplinary real estate organization whose work is driven by 40,000-plus members dedicated to responsible land use and the creation of thriving, sustainable communities. The institute’s participation as a 100RC partner involves resilience guidance to cities through its widely renowned Advisory Services program as well as Technical Assistance panels (TAPs) led by ULI’s locally based District Council networks. ULI has 51 District Councils across the United States. Through the 100 Resilient Cities’ Platform Partnership, ULI will convene one Advisory Services panel and two TAPs panels per year.
“We are excited to be a 100 Resilient Cities partner, as the goals of the program align well with ULI’s efforts to improve community building worldwide,” said ULI Global Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. “ULI has an 80-year track record of helping cities reinvent themselves to be more resilient, livable and successful, and we look forward to bringing the institute’s tradition of knowledge sharing to the program.”
Through its Advisory Services program, ULI convenes experts representing all aspects of land use and real estate to offer advice on community building in a way that helps preserve the environment, boost economic prosperity, and foster a high quality of life. As part of this program, ULI has advised several cities across the nation, including Norfolk, Virginia; El Paso, Texas; and Duluth, Minnesota, as well as Miami Dade County, Florida, on building for resilience.
Recently, ULI kicked off the Platform Partnership by hosting a “Ten Principles for Building Resilience” workshop at ULI’s headquarters in Washington, DC, from May 23-25. The workshop was chaired by former Global Chair of ULI Marilyn Jordan Taylor, and included a panel of 16 ULI members and resilience collaborators, most of whom have been active with ULI’s resilience-focused Advisory Services Panels. The panel also included two 100RC Chief Resilience Officers, Jim Murley (Miami-Dade County) and Christine Morris (Norfolk), as well as Mariane Jang, Head of Strategy Partner Network for 100RC. Together the group analyzed the findings of each of ULI’s resilience-focused Advisory Services Panels to develop Ten Principles for Building Resilience, which encompass the environmental, social, economic, land use and financial aspects of resilience. The report will be available in late summer.
100RC is dedicated to helping cities become more resilient to the shocks and stresses that are a growing part of the 21st century. Each city in the 100RC network receives four concrete types of support:
- Financial and logistical guidance for establishing an innovative new position in city government including a Chief Resilience Officer, who will lead the city’s resilience efforts;
- Technical support for development of a robust Resilience Strategy;
- Access to solutions, service providers, and partners from the private, public, academic, and NGO sectors who can help them develop and implement their resilience strategies; and
- Membership in a global network of peers who can learn from and help each other.
Platform Partners are dedicated to providing 100RC network cities with solutions that integrate big data, analytics, technology, resilience land use planning, infrastructure design, and new financing and insuring products. Other 100RC Platform Partners include Microsoft, Swiss Re, the World Bank, MasterCard, Veolia, and Sandia National Laboratories.