ULI India’s first product council on sustainability for new office spaces
Business Business: India is witnessing massive urbanisation and the real estate sector is set to boom in the next 4-5 years. To promote the sector, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) held its first prestigious ULI Product Council Preview meeting in Mumbai earlier this week. India’s real estate sector needs a strategic think tank to steer its growth towards high-quality, demand-driven projects. By promoting collaborative closed-door dialogues between industry leaders and stakeholders representing all sectors of the industry, this organisation can introduce global best practices to the domestic market.
ULI in India
Founded nearly 80 years ago, ULI is the world’s oldest built environment forum, with a presence in 86 countries across the world. ULI’s USP is its global membership of 45,000+ members across the spectrum of the built environment. It is the only multi-disciplinary forum where real estate developers, investors, architects, planners, engineers, lawyers and media professionals come together to discuss how we can build better cities. With impressive achievements in the U.S., EU, and Asia, ULI entered the Indian market two years ago. “While ULI is a well-known brand in the built environment globally, we are new to India. ULI’s plan for India is to replicate its international success locally while customizing its mission priorities in India. ULI has three mission priorities – decarbonization, housing attainment, and education of the next generation of young leaders,” said Manasvini Hariharan, Director, ULI India. ULI has over 30 product councils to drive action, each based on a different aspect of real estate, such as office, residential, sustainability, tourism, hospitality, airports, logistics, capital markets, infrastructure, technology, and more.
“Product Councils are a closed-door forum of senior industry leaders for candid conversations, knowledge sharing and meaningful discussions on a particular topic. Chatham House rules apply, and members bring collective experience and insights to critical business challenges,” Hariharan explained. In India, this has made its debut through the Office Council. Managing Director, Mumbai and New Business, Cushman & Wakefield, said: “There is immense power in knowledge and collective action, and ULI can act as a medium that helps the industry come together and envision the India we all want to build. Today, everything from the way we work to the way we live is changing rapidly. Complex external factors such as carbon neutrality commitments, technology, rapid urbanisation, global workplace evolution, etc. create disruptions during the normal order of business. By sharing knowledge and perspectives, the ULI Product Council can provide cross-learning opportunities for its members.” Sustainability and ESG
Over the next five years, the mission of the Office Council is to make sustainability a topic across the industry. Decision makers will become part of the Product Council and work together towards the larger goal of decarbonization and next-generation education. This will create many positive synergies that will go in the right direction.
