Estates Gazette, the publisher of commercial real estate data and intelligence, has announced that the Urban Land Institute’s UrbanPlan initiative has been shortlisted for the 2024 Social Impact category in the upcoming Estates Gazette Awards.

UrbanPlan, the schools-based educational programme from the Urban Land Institute, was amongst hundreds of nominations for the 2024 Social Impact Award earlier this year, and has made the judges’ shortlist of just six finalists.

The key criteria for the Social Impact Award is to showcase strong, definitive and positive measures being taken by real estate across the whole of the built environment to have a meaningful social impact. Evidence of impact was key as judges whittled down the nominations to produce the shortlist.

UrbanPlan which has been running in the UK for 10 years this year, exists to both help young people understand the role real estate plays in reviving and regenerating urban areas, and to encourage and inspire them into the industry from a wide range of different backgrounds, to make the industry more diverse and inclusive.

Evaluation data compiled from feedback collected after every UrbanPlan workshop, which was submitted to the Estates Gazette judging panel, showed an increase in the number of young people who were inspired to consider a career in real estate after taking part in the workshop. There was an increase from 26% before to 98% after of students who would now actively consider a career in the built environment.

The positive social impact that UrbanPlan achieves is thanks to the generous support of funders across the entire built environment. In the last academic year, our funders included Savills, CAPCO, British Land, Grosvenor, Orion Capital Partners, Greystar, Legal & General, Hollis, PIMCO Prime Real Estate, Harrison Street, KKR, UCEM and The Black Heart Foundation.

UrbanPlan UK is gearing up to reach a record 40 schools this year and is looking for potential sponsors and funders to get involved. The initiative offers opportunities to achieve ESG and CSR goals, while inspiring young people and forging thriving new links with local communities.

Sharon Thomas, UrbanPlan Manager at ULI, comments, “To discover that UrbanPlan has made the shortlist for the Estates Gazette Social Impact Award is a credit to the programme, the whole team and our generous funders. This initiative exists to inspire and encourage students and make a real-life difference and a real-world impact on them. Our funders love the programme as it helps them to meet their own corporate goals while inspiring the next generation, and with their support, we are able to increase the diversity and inclusivity of the industry by appealing to students who may not have even considered real estate as a career”.

Rebecca Levett, Head of Commercial Partnerships at Estates Gazette adds, “The EG judging panel were pleased to see the many positive measures being taken across the whole of the built environment to have a meaningful social impact. This year, evidence of impact was key as judges whittled down the shortlist to the final six. The EG Awards celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2024 – two decades of recognising the very best things about the real estate sector, and the Social Impact Award is the icing on the cake!”

Contact Sharon Thomas ([email protected]) UrbanPlan Manager, UK & Europe, to become a sponsor or funder for our upcoming tour. You can also visit ULI Europe’s website for more details.

See the EG Awards 2024 Shortlist here.

ENDS

For further information, contact [email protected]

Notes to Editors:

The Urban Land Institute is a non-profit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the institute has over 48,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines. In Europe ULI has almost 5,500 members across 15 National Council country networks.  ULI UK is the largest ULI National Council in Europe with over 1,300 members from the private and public sectors representing all disciplines within the UK commercial and residential property market. For more information on ULI, please visit https://europe.uli.org and https://uk.uli.org 

UrbanPlan is a realistic, engaging, and academically demanding classroom-based programme in which students learn about the fundamental forces that affect urban regeneration. It brings the urban environment to life for young people through a series of interactive workshops and team working challenges. UrbanPlan is now running in schools in Europe with programmes currently running in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Ireland. UrbanPlan is an educational programme to help young people understand the role real estate plays in reviving and regenerating urban areas. It also:

• Creates informed citizens who better understand communities where they live and work.
• Helps young people understand role real estate plays to revive and regenerate urban areas.
• Supports social mobility and the long-term success of the industry by reaching students from a diverse social and economic demographic.
• Develops valuable links between schools and industry.
• Enriches the curriculum by bringing urban studies to life.
• Engages with and raise aspirations of young people.
• Promotes careers in the built environment.

For more information on UrbanPlan, visit https://europe.uli.org/programmes/urbanplan/