When it comes to tackling climate and sustainability challenges head on, the real estate sector is in desperate need of leadership. For an industry populated by sharp business brains, innovative thinkers and corporate powerhouses, it has struggled to get its collective head around ESG. That’s not to say there has been no progress. But as far as facing the climate crisis as a united front goes, action has been minimal at best.
Could that all be about to change? When Better Building Partnerships’ Sarah Ratcliffe was announced as chair of the revamped Green Property Alliance earlier this month, it sparked a wave of support, approval and perhaps even a touch of relief. Ratcliffe knows sustainability. She knows real estate. And, crucially, she knows how to mobilise action.
With more than 15 years’ experience advising investors and developers individually, she has now been tasked with bringing those players together to make real and significant changes by tackling some – not all, Ratcliffe is clear on that – of the most pressing issues the industry is currently facing.
Coordinated message
It’s a big job. Is Ratcliffe daunted? “I don’t think you can look at the world and everything that’s going on around us in terms of the environmental and sustainability challenges we face and not be daunted by that,” she says. “But I would also say that there is an immense opportunity here for the real estate industry to be a power for good. Whether that’s about reducing emissions or improving climate resilience. So, yes, it is an incredibly challenging space to be working in, but it is also an incredibly exciting one too.”
Launched in 2010 under the umbrella of the Property Industry Alliance, the GPA – which in the words of PIA chair Bill Hughes at LGIM has been “drifting” for several years – has been relaunched with a focus on collaboration and new goals. Part of its success going forward, says Ratcliffe, will be not trying to tackle everything.
“There such a huge amount going on. It needs to be about how we grasp that as the GPA and work out which bits we should take a leadership role on and which bits it would actually be better to say ‘someone else is already doing a really good job of that, let’s support them’”, says Ratcliffe. “So we will put our collective weight – and there are 14 members – behind issues where we need coherent and coordinated messaging.”
In the first instance the areas of focus will be: sustainability policy and regulation, data and metrics, engaging with the investor community, retrofitting and technology.
The GPA under Ratcliffe’s leadership is already in the process of establishing initiatives with the collective backing of the body’s 14 members. “These might not be reports being produced or guidance being published,” says Ratcliffe. “They might be more about getting some coordinated messaging out there about government policy.”
More detail will come soon, she says. But she knows what the GPA shouldn’t be. “It is really important to me that is isn’t just an opportunity for us to get together round a table once a quarter to share what we are doing,” she says. “It can’t be that we just chat and then all go away again.”
The catalyst for action will be the all-important “unite and convene” element of Ratcliffe’s role. Bringing the real estate sector together to tackle issues head on will be the most effective route to change. Ratcliffe is under no illusions as to how big a task this will be. But she does believe the industry is closer to effective collaboration around sustainability than it might realise.
“In my role at the BBP I get involved in lots of conversations across the industry and one key observation is how many of those conversations have common threads,” she says. “The interests of organisations are very aligned. There just hasn’t been a space for them all to come together.”
The GPA, she says, can be that space. And that is why she is intent on making sure she can deliver a voice of honest leadership through the alliance. She won’t be shying away from candidly discussing the issues the sector, and the wider world, face but equally she wants to avoid the shaming, accusatory tone that is often directed towards the sector in relation to its contributions to emissions.
“Ultimately members want the voice of leadership,” she says. “There is a requirement for a tone of voice that acknowledges what has happened in the past but also demonstrates what can be done in the future.
“The tone also needs to evoke radical collaboration. It is so important that as an industry we tackle this collectively together. We talk a lot about system change and market transformation. I want to actually make that into a reality.”
Thorny issue
How much does that reality come down to hammering home the financial benefits of addressing sustainability issues? Many have said time and again that this, and this alone, will be the biggest contributing factor to kick-starting large-scale action.
“There is a huge amount of evidence out there to demonstrate that tackling sustainability issues can contribute to achieving financial and investment objectives,” says Ratcliffe. “And there’s evidence to suggest that sometimes addressing those sustainability issues enables you to outperform. It will be interesting to see how the financial sector and how investment, finance and lending can work together with sectors including the built environment to support a transition to a sustainable economy.”
It’s one of many complex, thorny issues around how the UK real estate sector tackles sustainability challenges. The team at the revamped GPA will hope Ratcliffe can rally everyone to address it.
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