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ESG Investment: Is Real Estate Meeting Investor Expectations?

Mahbod Nia

Mahbod Nia

Non-Executive Director

Mack-Cali Realty Corporation

Aleksandra (Sasha) Njagulj

Aleksandra (Sasha) Njagulj

Global Head of ESG

CBRE Global Investors

Torolf Hamm

Torolf Hamm

Head of Physical Catastrophe & Climate Risk

Willis Towers Watson

Guy Battle

Guy Battle

Chief Executive

Social Value Portal

Ed Gabbitas

Ed Gabbitas

Executive Director

EVORA Global

Mahbod Nia

Non-Executive Director

Mack-Cali Realty Corporation

Currently serving as a Non-Executive Director of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (NYSE: CLI), a publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on office and multi-family assets in New Jersey.

Formerly Chief Executive Officer of NorthStar Realty Europe Corp (NYSE: NRE), a publicly traded REIT, listed on the New York Stock Exchange with a focus on European properties, a member of NRE’s investment committee and board of directors. Managing Director at Colony Capital Inc and member of the European Steering Committee between 2017 and 2019.

Joined NorthStar Asset Management Group (NYSE: NSAM) in 2014 to establish the company’s European investment platform, rapidly growing it to $2.6bn in Assets Under Management across 9 countries and 5 asset classes. The platform was spun-off in 2015 to create NRE, an independently listed REIT traded on the New York Stock Exchange. NRE was sold in September of 2019, realising a 16% IRR and 1.5x equity multiple for shareholders since its inception.

Prior to joining NSAM, I acted for PanCap Investment Partners, a European real estate investment and advisory firm, working closely with a number of leading investment firms including Goldman Sachs' Real Estate Principal Investments Area (REPIA). I was a Senior Executive Director at Goldman Sachs between 2007 and 2009 and served in various positions at Citigroup Inc. (formerly Salomon Brothers) prior to that.

Aleksandra (Sasha) Njagulj

Global Head of ESG

CBRE Global Investors

Aleksandra (Sasha) Njagulj is the Global Head of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance). Ms Njagulj joined

CBRE Global Investors in 2019 and is based in London. She has overall responsibility for developing and communicating

global ESG priorities and strategies across all business lines in EMEA, APAC and the U.S. She supports the global,

regional and business line Responsible Investment Management Committees (RIMCos).

Ms Njagulj is a qualified architect with over 20 years of practical experience in architectural design, design management

and the sustainable built environment. In 2017, she joined CBRE Global Workspace Solutions as the Lead for CBRE

Global Investors with responsibility for designing and delivering ESG policies and strategies tailored for country-specific

and global funds. This programme has received the edie 2020 Sustainability Leaders Award for the Investor of the Year.

Before CBRE, Ms Njagulj was head of the Sustainability, R&D and Innovation department at Bouygues U.K.

Ms Njagulj earned a Master’s degree in Architectural Design from the University of Belgrade in 2002 and a Master’s

degree in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge in 2017. She is a BRE Academy Fellow, serves on

the GRESB Advisory Board and the ULI Sustainability Council.

She has received the 2020 GRESB/BREEAM Individual Leadership Award, recognising individuals who have

demonstrated strong leadership and commitment in the field of sustainable development, and personally championed the

cause of responsible real estate investment.

Torolf Hamm

Head of Physical Catastrophe & Climate Risk

Willis Towers Watson

Torolf joined the Willis Towers Watson in 2011 and now leads the Catastrophe and Climate Risk Management team of WTW Strategic Risk Consulting in London. Torolf holds a PhD in Engineering Geology from Imperial College and a German Diploma in Geology (Dipl.Geol) from the RWTH Aachen. His primary responsibility is to manage natural and man-made hazard risk consulting projects (including catastrophe modelling and risk engineering assessments) for large global organisations. Torolf has a strong track record of delivering risk financing and risk mitigation projects across all sectors, including, mining, energy and oil & gas companies.

Guy Battle

Chief Executive

Social Value Portal

Guy Battle is a Sustainability Consultant with over 25 years of experience. Guy originally trained as an engineer and much of his early career was focused within the real estate industry, during which time he worked on many award-winning projects with internationally renowned architects. More recently, Guy was the lead partner for Sustainability at Deloitte LLP, where he worked closely with many corporates helping them solve some of the key sustainability challenges facing the world of corporate business. In September 2014, Guy set up The Sustainable Business Partnership and is now focused on unlocking the inherent social, environmental and financial opportunities that businesses should do to create value. In spring 2014, Guy supported Hazel Blears MP with a review of The Public Services (Social Value) Act with a series of cross party recommendations to Cabinet Office. Guy is passionate about the contribution that Business can make to improve our society and this has been one of the driving motivations behind the creation of The Social Value Portal.

Ed Gabbitas

Executive Director

EVORA Global

Ed is a Chartered Environmentalist and Chartered Energy Manager with 19 years’ experience in

sustainability within commercial real estate. He co-founded the ESG consultancy EVORA in 2011 and

has overseen growth from three founding partners to over 80 professionals in the last ten years.

Ed has board level responsibility for developing and approving EVORA’s client solutions on a global

basis. Ed is also heavily engaged with the market and has a strong track record of helping leading

real estate companies to establish their ESG strategy and develop practical pathways to enable

successful execution at corporate, portfolio and asset level. He is passionate about integrating ESG

factors into real estate investment, development and operational processes to accelerate the

evolution and adoption of sustainability practices.

Retrofitting Existing Buildings For Sustainability

Sandra Gritti

Sandra Gritti

Director EDGE Next

EDGE Technologies

Derek Wilson

Derek Wilson

Head of Sustainability, Commercial Development

Transport for London

Nico van der Merwe

Nico van der Merwe

Vice President Home & Distribution, UK & Ireland

Schneider Electric

Tim Stephen

Tim Stephen

Director

Community Utilities

Andy Sutton

Andy Sutton

Co-Founder & Design / Innovation Director

Sero

Derek Wilson

Head of Sustainability, Commercial Development

Transport for London

Leader of the TfL sustainable development team, responsible for driving industry-leading economic, environmental, and social performance across a £5bn+ portfolio of property developments and existing assets.

MRICS chartered surveyor, Chartered Environmentalist, and LEED Accredited Professional with expertise in sustainable development, transit-oriented regeneration, sustainability performance optimisation, and corporate strategy.

Nico van der Merwe

Vice President Home & Distribution, UK & Ireland

Schneider Electric

Nico has worked at Schneider Electric for over 12 years, taking up the role of Vice President of Home & Distribution in 2019. Throughout the years, Nico has been in charge of Schneider Electric’s Channel Development for Europe, playing a vital role in formulating and leading strategic transformational projects.

Nico is currently responsible for ensuring that Schneider Electric’s portfolio of smart devices, sensors and energy management solutions are front of mind with electricians, home builders and contractors. Nico brings his ability to create high performing teams, enable business transformation and encourage entrepreneurial thinking to his role. With homes becoming increasingly connected and the spotlight on the inefficiencies of UK housing stock becoming a great focus in the battle to halt climate change, Nico believes that smart technologies such as Wiser will have a large role to play in creating truly connected and efficient homes. The electrical demand in the residential is the fastest growing segment in years to come and Nico believes that Schneider Electric already have the technologies and relevant channels to bring forth these solutions from the Grid to the Plug.

Tim Stephen

Director

Community Utilities

Tim is a Director of Community Utilities, a extension of the amber energy® enterprise business. Tim’s background prior to joining Community has been in the student housing sector where he managed over 8,000 beds across the UK.

Tim is a chartered surveyor (MRICS) and has 20 years of both client side and consultancy asset management experience under his belt in a wide range of sectors. As a self-confessed customer service geek, Tim spends his time working out what customers want and making it happen!

Tim likes to challenge the norm and push the boundaries of conventional thinking (which is a challenge in both the property and utilities industries) with a value of being an “Evolution Addict”

Tim is based in London and is looking to grow the Community Utilities business by increasing client investment profitability, reducing development costs and providing exceptional levels of customer experience.

Andy Sutton

Co-Founder & Design / Innovation Director

Sero

Andy is Sero’s Cofounder and Design & Innovation director. Since qualifying as the youngest chartered architect, his career spanned a dozen years in architectural practice and a decade with the BRE before helping establish Sero. The theme throughout this is decarbonisation, where he has a number of award winning and published schemes including the Barratt Green House (Code 6 zero carbon), Maes-Yr-Onn farm house (off grid), and Cwmbach Retrofit for the Future (first residential solar transpired collector).

In tackling decarbonisation, Andy created the LENDERS mortgage finance project that was adopted as UK Government policy in the “Clean Growth Strategy”, and he continues this work within Sero though R&D projects covering green property valuation, domestic demand side response and modular construction. A past president of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales and the founder of the Design Circle branch, Andy is also a steering group member for Welsh Government’s Decarbonisation and Innovative Housing Programmes, as well as a Management Board member for Constructing Excellence Wales.

Summary

  1. How to truly measure your sustainability and social impact — it’s not as scary as you think

  2. The technological disruptions that are bringing sustainability within the reach of all firms

  3. What investors really want when it comes to ESG

  4. What retrofit/new construction technologies and methods are most applicable to London buildings

  5. How embracing these ideals will allow you to hire the most talented people coming in to the industry

Agenda

Time Activity
9:15 AM
9:30 AM
Pre Event Networking

Jump into Bisnow's Digital Summit early to fill out your profile, introduce yourself to fellow attendees and send meeting requests for later in the day.

9:30 AM
10:15 AM
ESG Investment: Is Real Estate meeting investor expectations?

1.To what extent is the TCFD framework a compliance driven initiative, or a meaningful exercise in determining climate related risks and opportunities?
2. How is the ESG agenda affecting development and asset financing, and how does civic leadership within a city like London impact on capital allocation?
3. How does ESG investing impact on funds’ ability to raise new investment?

10:20 AM
10:45 AM
Speed Networking

Hop into speed networking to meet like-minded individuals and swap digital business cards.

10:50 AM
11:30 AM
Retrofitting Existing Buildings for Sustainability

1. How much embodied carbon do you save by not knocking a building down and building a new one, but retrofitting an existing asset and making it more efficient?
2. What retrofit/new construction technologies are most applicable to London buildings, and how long does it typically take to see benefits?
3. How do you inform occupiers that taking an existing building might actually be the most energy-efficient solution?

11:30 AM
12:00 PM
Post-Panel-Speed Networking

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