On 5 September, leading UK landlords, investors, occupiers and thought leaders gathered at the Events @ No 6 venue in London for one of the most important events in the social value calendar, IMPACT UK, organised by SPACE+.
The event covered a wide range of topics from purpose and social value through to ESG tech, embodied carbon and the supply chain.
Following a keynote interview with Related Argent managing director Tom Goodall, on the external as well as internal journey the business has been on as it seeks to act with purpose and deliver true social value, BE News editor Liz Hamson chaired the keynote panel debate on ‘Leading Change’.
As a collaborator with SPACE+, BE News was delighted to sit in on the second keynote interview, with Landsec chief executive Mark Allan, and on several dynamic ‘Tribe’ discussions on the big ESG challenges and opportunities facing the built environment.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the one-day event:
Keynote Panel – Leading Change
Developers, landlords and occupiers have a unique opportunity to create social value through their real estate. Yet, as everyone is also all too aware, there is a huge gap between ambition and action. In the opening keynote panel debate on Leading Change, BE News editor Liz Hamson was joined by panellists Jacob Loftus, founder and CEO of General Projects, Gabriela Hersham, co-founder and CEO of Huckletree and Claudia Bastiani, head of workplace experience & design at Legal & General for a deep-dive discussion on how to close the gap.
Hamson set the scene by asking the audience if they thought members of the public understood what social value was. Around 80% responded ‘no, people probably think it’s something to do with social media’, while 15% said ‘doesn’t matter, as long as the industry is joined up in delivering it’ and 5% didn’t respond. No one raised their hand to say ‘yes, people are more clued up than ever’, illustrating the scale of the task in hand.
Bastiani stressed that “connecting with people on the street is key” but said she believed that “generally, people like to use their platform for good and there is a desire to do the right thing”. Hersham added that terms such as social value and social impact did not mean a lot to people outside the industry and that Huckletree tried to tailor the language to the audience, using phrases such as mission driven or impact driven with younger people, for instance. Loftus pointed out that unlike social impact, “environmental is quite an intuitive and easy thing for people to understand”. The challenge with social impact is how to create an infrastructure that makes it easier for those who want to do good to do it, given the lack of clear measurables.
The consensus was that it is difficult measure social value. Loftus noted that “numbers need to be taken with a pinch of salt” and advised: “Just get on and do it. There’s way too much talking and not enough action.”
Hersham said she felt uncomfortable about attributing a financial value to social value. “For me, it’s back to B Corp. It’s all measured,” she said, adding that embedding social value required the whole leadership team to buy into it and that it was important to work closely with suppliers and landlords. Bastiani emphasised the importance of establishing KPIs and identifying deliverables. “Know your landlord,” she added. “You can leverage that partnership and it makes life a lot easier.”
Keynote interview – Landsec chief executive Mark Allan
For the second keynote interview, sponsored by Smart Spaces, Landsec chief executive Mark Allan took to the stage to discuss the company’s The Forge development in Southwark, which is the UK’s first net zero carbon commercial office building.
Allan talked about Landsec’s ‘build well, live well, act well’ framework and said the company could not succeed by itself in delivering sustainable buildings and cities; collective action and collaboration between multiple parties were required.
He touched on some of Landsec’s research initiatives relating to the development of sustainable and successful cities and highlighted the work of Landsec’s Futures social value programme and the importance of social mobility.
During a Q&A interview session following the keynote hosted by Dan Drogman from Smart Spaces, Allan said that for occupiers, sustainability was number one or two in their list of priorities and that office schemes won’t even make it onto the long list of occupier options if they don’t have accreditations such as BREEAM and NABERS.
He added that green office space in London was seeing strong demand and was attracting a premium at the moment and he speculated that we would see much more retrofitting and retention of existing structures in developments in the future.
Tribe 1: INVEST – Return on Sustainability
When many property companies consider investment, whether it is in a building or a piece of technology, the focus has historically been on the return on that investment. However, a new concept is starting to gain traction: the return on sustainability.
In this engaging tribe session, hosted by Rebekah Tobias from MARCOL, and co-hosted by Alex Greaves [M&G Real Estate], David Inskip [CBRE IM], Harry Knibb [Oxford Properties] and Katerina Papavaslielou [Federated Hermes], the discussion centred on the shift towards sustainable investment.
Tribe participants agreed there is a growing pool of investors who prioritise sustainability and social impact, even if it means potentially sacrificing some financial returns. This trend indicates a shift in market priorities and investor values.
After focusing on the relevance of industry metrics such as the EPC system for measuring the sustainability or social value of property, the debate shifted to how best to measure and represent sustainability in real estate, and in particular how it relates to social value.
While tribe participants acknowledged the industry has come a long way in recent years, there was general consensus that a lot more progress still needs to be made.
Tribe 4: OCCUPY – Wellbeing & Social Value
This important session delving into issues surrounding wellbeing and social value touched on one of the hottest topics in the property sector at the moment – hybrid working.
Hosted by Claudia Bastiani [L&G] and co-hosted by Toby Chapman [Arcadis] and Surasen Naidu [Standard Chartered Bank], this session covered an array of challenges related to hybrid working, with many business leaders sharing their pain points.
Some participants noted that utilisation of their office space was currently only around the 30% mark and one participant said the biggest competitor they currently faced was not another office location but people’s homes.
Other tribe participants from larger companies said a big challenge for them was catering to the different demands of different teams within the business, with some departments required to work in the office five days a week due to the nature of their work and other teams wanting – and able – to work remotely some of the time.
One participant said his company had explored a number of radical solutions to hybrid work, looking into where people were travelling from and where they were willing to travel to and that his business had even considered putting an office at Heathrow Airport.
Participants agreed that technology, such as capacity planning software and desk booking systems, had a crucial role to play, as it allowed businesses to capture data and use it to inform where offices should be located and how they should be laid out, but it was pointed out that ultimately the key to solving the hybrid working issue is knowing your people and the purpose of your workforce and then making sure you offer choices that align with the outlook of your colleagues.
Tribe 6: INVEST – Tech Investment & Deployment
Hosted by Ben Rouncefield-Swales from EVORA Global, which sponsored the session, and co-hosted by Related Argent’s Jack Sibley, UKAA’s Brendan Geraghty and LGIM’s Ruman Sahota, this tribe session looked at tech investment and deployment from a range of perspectives, comparing and contrasting the priorities for everyone from developers and landlords to occupiers.
Participants agreed that it is important to focus on the customer experience and that not all solutions have to be hi-tech; some are surprisingly low-tech.
Technology that helps improve energy efficiency was, unsurprisingly, a priority for many, with several people talking about the benefits of solar power, for instance.
The tribe was challenged to address how businesses should hold themselves accountable. There was consensus that taking personal responsibility is key and businesses should put someone in charge of carbon rather than just throwing money at the latest tech. Data could also be used to hold people accountable, suggested one participant, noting that gamification could incentivise people to engage.
Others stressed the importance of a strong partnership between the landlord and tenant and the vital role of effective education and communication in winning over hearts and minds.
Developers should also be mindful of the impact their schemes have on the local community, noted one participant. Another said that more joined-up thinking was required, so that when technology is introduced to a building, it is used in the way intended. The good news, agreed participants, was that tenants are increasingly clear on the value of technology and the array of solutions available to create low-carbon buildings and people are now stepping up across the industry to ensure the right decisions are made and the right technology deployed. That said, the consensus was that the industry is still very much at the start of what is likely to prove a long journey.
Tribe 8: OPERATE – Decarbonised Asset Performance
There was agreement that buildings that boast sustainability certifications and/or accreditations are much more attractive to tenants than those that do not.
However, participants said that while it was easy for people to tick the E box in ESG it was hard to quantify and manage the S and the G and that, as every landlord and developer was now chasing the same environmental accreditations for their buildings, a key point of difference in the future could be factors relating to the S and the G.
During the session, which was sponsored and hosted by Smart Spaces’ Dan Drogman and co-hosted by Stephen Walker [abrdn], Toby Pullen [The Max Barney Estate], Anyi Hobson [SEAM Advisory], Jon Cochrane [Brunswick Property] and Laura Wilson-Brown [CBRE IM], participants agreed that there is a lot of noise surrounding ESG in the property industry and there is a need to remove greenwashing and agree on a common language and definition.
It was pointed out that people are using the same three letters, but meanings vary. As one tribe member pointed out, you can technically offset everything and receive a net zero carbon badge for your building.
Additional reporting by John Redmond – ESG MBA student at London Business School
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