Reflections: our foundational progress

Jon, catch us up – what progress have we made on our global ESG strategy since last year?

We’ve been looking for every opportunity to leverage our sustainability knowledge and experience into our core services and offerings.

This work is seen as both a crucial value driver, and an approach to de-risking assets and projects for our clients. We embed principles of sustainability within our consultative approach as well as the adoption of technical standards and sustainability attributes across the planning, design and delivery of fit- out projects and is now a key part of many retrofit and new build projects.

Additionally, we are focusing teams to explore potential across emerging sectors such as electric vehicles, and compiling best practice tools to help advise our clients to drive better sustainability outcomes and mitigate risk across real estate transactions and management of portfolios.

Internally, we are bolstering our Employee Resource Groups, including activating a consistent branded approach to the groups, and celebrating the one-year anniversary of our group for those interested in sustainability and social value: Pangea.

Our communications and content teams are also leaning into sustainability and ESG-centric themes in our global content initiatives like our recent Drivers of Change campaign, further demonstrating our focus on this in all areas of our business.

What are some of the biggest challenges we are facing on this journey?

The biggest challenge right now is there isn’t a one-size fits all approach to this work. Each strategy and solution must be tailored to fit various geographies, cities, funds, properties, sectors, client types and budgets and, with greater appreciation of this nuance, navigating this at scale can be challenging. One certainty is the global trend for strengthened and robust regulations in most geographies, which underpins the shift occurring in industries such as the finance sector and capital markets. This impacts real estate markets and participants, alongside the growing need for organisations to evaluate, manage and adapt strategies and operations to address the consequences of the increasing likelihood, frequency and severity of weather and climate related perils.

We are also seeing the impact from current global economic climates (including higher interest rates and banking sector concerns over market liquidity) in specific geographies, influencing short-term decision-making, and putting some of this work – centred on new practices and change – against competing priorities. Short-term distraction presents risks, and we see it as an imperative to continue to be laser-focused on moving the needle for ourselves and our clients’ day-to-day and over the long term.

What are some of the biggest opportunities for us as a firm right now, and as we look ahead?

Taking a partnership approach with our clients on this work and aligning it with our core offerings will continue to be a key driver of growth for our business for years to come. We continue to evolve our working practices and work with our clients to generate the value that can come from integrating new thinking and overcoming challenges on projects and transactions.

In the year ahead, we plan to build on progress by:

• Developing more intentional geo-based strategies to reflect market drivers, and unique opportunities by city and sector.
• Maintain our partnership approach with industry bodies to advance best practices and help shape and adopt standards.
• Continue to regularly share success stories and transfer knowledge from each project across our business, part of our culture and programme of learning and personal development.
• Deliver on our roadmap for ISSB reporting and revisit our materiality work aligned with our business strategy.

What are some of the biggest opportunities for our clients right now, and in the year ahead?

The biggest opportunities lie in realizing that the solutions and needs for every company are different, and being intentional about creating customized approaches that align with core business objectives is the right path to be on.

What do we recommend most? Plan, pilot, test and see. Capture learnings, figure out what is replicable and know what success will look like for every endeavour. And don’t forget about the good parts of the journey – celebrate every win and milestone.

In the year ahead, we are setting ourselves up for shared success for our current and future clients by supporting these opportunities:

• Having the whole value chain working together in collaboration as a shift that needs to continue to develop across the industry, driven by all types of client, from lenders, owners, investors and occupiers.
• Integrating data into operations and portfolio management to enable informed decision making and help to identify improvements. Harnessing the power of digital technology by investing into robust integrated data management should be a priority.
• Adopting and testing standards. The updated global RICS guidance for whole life carbon assessments provides needed clarity to enable a common approach to projects. Similarly, publication of the net zero carbon buildings standard in the UK represents an opportunity for all actors in the property lifecycle to use a single framework and benchmark activities.
• Continuing to provide a spotlight on client case studies to demonstrate this work in action, as a showcase of what has worked well, and what could work for others.

Lastly, we have to know, where does your personal passion for sustainability, for this work, come from?

From a young age, I always had an innate intrigue, curiosity, and a passion for the natural world. I care deeply about its life-giving and life- enhancing qualities for society.

Being in nature not only lifts our spirits, but it gives us an appreciation for the diversity and complexity of the world around us. It supports the well-being of society, and its resources are the literal bedrock of our social and economic prosperity. It’s a world worth cherishing through adapting our behaviours, not just for us in this moment, but for many future generations to come.

We humans have so much potential to come together and solve complex problems, and applied to work like this, it has me thinking: what could we truly do here, for the good of us all?

It’s what drives me, bringing meaning and purpose to my working life. And I can’t wait to see what we keep building together as a business, driving forward across our teams, for the good of people and for planetary health.