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LONDON – LEADING THE WAY IN DECARBONISATION
With significant investments going into the climate and building technology required to deliver the London Mayor’s ambitious roadmap to net zero, the capital is world leader in the decarbonisation agenda.
Edith Blennerhassett, Director, Buildings Engineering, ARUP; Abigail Dean, Global Head of Strategic Insights, Nuveen Real Estate; and Philip Graham, Executive Director, Good Growth, Greater London Authority held a lively debate on how the capital can continue to lead on decarbonisation by embracing the transformation and repurposing of buildings and places for energy reduction and embodied carbon retention alongside urban regeneration.
Blennerhassett said: “Eighty per cent of the buildings that are with us now will still be with us in 2050. There’s an opportunity to retrofit these buildings for lower net zero carbon. The embodied carbon in those buildings is a huge benefit. If you can reuse the structure and reuse as much of the building as you can, a massive carbon saving will be had.”
For London to continue leading the way in decarbonisation, the panel agreed that organisations must tackle data transparency. Dean said: “We do not know how much energy is used in all of our buildings where our occupiers are procuring energy themselves. We cannot always access that information. It’s incredibly administratively burdensome to do so. The occupiers are not always inclined to share it with us. And even if they are, we can’t always get it easily through the utility companies.”
CONCLUSION
It was promising that ESG formed the spine of MIPIM 2022. Additionally, the conference tackled diversity across the industry. There has clearly been a step change evidenced by an overwhelming belief at MIPIM that COVID forced corporations to step back and focus on their priorities, personally and collectively.
As Dean said: “ESG has gone from being a nice to have to something people really want to see. Any real estate investment activity is sure to have an ESG focus and clear decarbonisation plan. It is driving strategy forward.”
With one delegate describing the MIPIM of old as ‘male, pale, and stale’, it was refreshing to note that many panels featured women with diversity top of the agenda. Freehold, a networking forum for LGBTQ+ professionals working within the real estate sector, and Women in Property were all there, with events on the calendar. The Gend-Her networking event returned, bearing more significance than ever. It featured an inspiring speech from award-winning author Michelle King and Wendy Mann, CEO of CREW Network. This interactive session explored how gender balance in the real estate industry can boost creativity and economic growth.
The “diversity” conversation has moved on from representation and a box-ticking exercise to an understanding that more diverse voices are needed. However, the famous Café Roma and other local restaurants spilled out with crowds which were noticeably largely made up of men onto the cobbled streets throughout the event. According to the Global Real Estate DEI survey, 43 per cent of real estate companies in Europe employ a professional dedicated to ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’. As real estate moves towards a more human-centric business model and the lines between the real estate professional and the property’s communities, it is evident that diversity and inclusion is a topic that must spearhead the agenda in 2023.
ESG, wellbeing, and diversity were the key themes at MIPIM 2022. It’s heartening to think that, as challenging as the past two years have been for all industries, many people have used this period as an opportunity to analyse what’s important to them personally and professionally.
The WELL Building Institute’s Stephen Brown prudently added that health and wellbeing are two huge metrics around social human capital. “If we can’t get our own wellbeing in line, we are going to be very unproductive,” he said. Brown admitted that he talks regularly to chief medical officers, chief wellbeing officers, chief sustainability officers and anybody involved in ESG reporting about mental health. That is a huge step forward.
However, words must lead to action.
