JLL launches non-profit aiming to mitigate climate change

Real estate and investment management firm JLL recently launched JLL Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to making a long-term impact on environmental sustainability.

Working with Good Machine, a venture studio specializing in climate impact, JLL Foundation is helping organizations that work to mitigate climate change with a focus on the built environment. The Foundation offers zero-interest recoverable loans and reinvests returned funds.

Grantees are selected not only based on their ability to provide lasting, positive climate impact, but also on the diversity of their teams or ownership structure, and ability to scale to other countries around the world. The foundation, recognizing the need for speed in mitigating climate change impacts, is also building a network of like-minded co-investors to promote innovative solutions.

“The JLL Foundation’s aspiration to create a significant impact on climate-related issues over the next 10-20 years is well aligned with JLL’s purpose of shaping the future of real estate for a better world,” said Christian Ulbrich, JLL CEO, in a news release. “As companies everywhere focus more on achieving their own sustainability goals, providing assistance to startups that can offer solutions to environmental challenges can make a real and long-term difference.”

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.