COMMENT My career in real estate sustainability began at a time before net zero targets, decarbonisation roadmaps and green financing were commonplace among the sector’s major players.
My first exposure to the built environment was at a non-profit completing energy-efficient retrofits in low-income homes in Australia. Then, while studying for a master of sustainability at the University of Sydney, I reached out to several companies with requests to join their sustainability teams – not a particularly common service line at the time – to work on a research project. Frasers Property Australia, something of a pioneer in sustainability in the property sector at the time, took me on. Six months later, the company offered me a full-time position working across sustainability for residential masterplanned projects.
Changing places
Four years later, with the support of my manager, I engineered a move to the UK, establishing Frasers Property UK’s dedicated sustainability team. Building this function from the ground up was rewarding work, but another four years on I was ready for a new challenge. Earlier this year, I joined Knight Frank’s property and asset management team as ESG lead.
The speed and scale of the property sector’s transformation over the course of my career has been immense, accelerated in part by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Covid, for example, contributed to a polarisation in office demand between the best assets and the rest.
Leading sustainability credentials generated rental premiums and reduced void periods, becoming a key differentiator for the most sophisticated landlords and a core component of the most successful investors’ strategies. Meanwhile, rocketing energy costs prompted occupiers and landlords to explore opportunities to green their energy supply as a future-proofing measure against potential shocks.
As a result, where once there was a relatively small and scattered network of experts pioneering carbon reduction plans and solutions, now there is a dedicated team of ESG professionals at almost every major real estate investor and developer in Europe. Even smaller propcos and occupiers, which may not have the in-house expertise to craft their own net zero roadmaps, are turning to consultants for advice on reducing emissions.
Seize the moment
This is a fantastic opportunity for new school-leavers, graduates and young professionals starting out in the sector. There remains an enormous challenge ahead of us to decarbonise the built environment. Sustainability experts have a vital part to play in this by helping corporates set challenging but attainable net zero targets and then deliver on these by executing focused and comprehensive net zero roadmaps, at the portfolio and asset level.
As more property companies develop sophisticated approaches to carbon reduction, attention is also turning to the “S” and the “G” of the ESG equation. This opens up new frontiers for talented young sustainability leaders to create innovative solutions to problems of social accounting, climate risk management and workplace wellbeing.
Path to leadership
Crucially, sustainability professionals have never been more valued by real estate companies. Competition to attract the best and brightest of the next generation is rampant, and talented new joiners will find themselves quickly developing leadership roles within the sector. The importance of accurate data collection and analysis in achieving meaningful progress on ESG issues also caters to tech-proficient millennial and Gen Z employees.
Future leaders in the sector should grasp this opportunity with both hands, leveraging the expansion of the real estate sustainability field to find mentors able to provide advice and guidance at the start of their careers. I can scarcely imagine how much good can be achieved by the next generation of tech-savvy, motivated and sustainably minded real estate leaders.
Amira Hashemi is ESG lead for property asset management at Knight Frank
