Thurber donates $500,000 to ULI climate fund

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Former Urban Land Institute (ULI) global chair Lynn Thurber has donated $500,000 to support the ULI Greenprint Center for Building Performance’s Net Zero Imperative, a multi-year program intended to accelerate decarbonization in the built environment.

Thurber, the chairman of JLL Income Property Trust and past chair for ULI’s Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance, said her donation was motivated by the need to avert “catastrophic climate change.”

“We must develop and implement the changes necessary to take each and every building on the journey to net zero carbon emissions, if we want to leave our planet in a livable position for our grandchildren and for the generations to come after them,” she said in a statement.

Thurber, a ULI trustee, also cited the inspiration of Owen Thomas, a member of the ULI Foundation’s board of directors and chief executive of Boston Properties, who through his family foundation recently donated $1 million to launch the Net Zero Imperative.

“When Owen Thomas shared with me his plan to launch a Net Zero Imperative at ULI with a very generous personal gift, I was thrilled and motivated to help,” Thurber said.

The gift establishes Thurber as a member of the ULI Foundation’s Charles Fraser Society, which honours those with lifetime contributions to ULI exceeding $1 million.