ULI Meeting, Expo Set to Be Carbon Neutral

By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorColumbia, Md.–The ongoing 2008 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Fall Meeting and Urban Land Expo is all set to be completely carbon neutral as a result of funding from the Enterprise Green Communities Offset Fund.Enterprise will offset all the emissions of carbon dioxide generated by the meeting by providing funds to reduce an equivalent amount of emissions in environmentally sustainable affordable housing developments participating in Enterprise’s Green Communities initiative.“ULI’s commitment to offset its annual meeting means first and foremost that low-income families will experience the benefits of living in a green affordable home,” says Dana Bourland, senior director of the Enterprise Green Communities initiative and managing director of the Offset Fund. “It’s also a strong statement by the leaders of the real estate community that green buildings can and must be part of the solution to climate change.”More than 5,000 real estate industry leaders from around the world are attending the ULI meeting being held from October 27 through Thursday, October 30 in Miami. Enterprise estimates that the attendees will generate more than 5,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from their travel as well as the energy use associated with the hotels where attendees are staying and the convention center where the meeting is being held.Through the Green Communities Offset Fund, Enterprise will provide funding by purchasing an offset from affordable housing developers to increase energy efficiency and utilize renewable energy technologies in their projects.“The developments we will assist to offset the ULI meeting would have included energy-efficiency and environmental features anyway as a result of participating in the Enterprise Green Communities initiative,” Bourland says. “The additional funding we will provide through the Green Communities Offset Fund will enable the projects to achieve deeper carbon emissions reductions than they otherwise would have been able to realize.”