On 9 and 10 October, INREV conducted the first edition of the Advanced ESG course in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first day started off with a welcome lunch, then an introduction by our course leader, Abigail Dean from Nuveen Real Estate. On the second day, participants visited the UN17 Village on a tour organised by Urban Partners – an excellent example of SDG integration.
Here are some highlights and key learnings from the course:
- Aleksandra Njagulj and Anisha Galli walked us through the rollercoaster of regulatory initiatives affecting our industry. Clearly, regulations do not (yet) align, and definitions and concepts, including “Sustainable Investment”, are not sufficiently clear.
- Laure Ferrand and Brett Ormrod presented a number of tools and case studies to support the decarbonisation journey, and stressed the need for action to reach our goals.
- Allee Zhang walked us through UBS’ approach to climate risk management, with a focus on methods to assess the potential impact of extreme weather events.
- Abigail Dean, Zara Walsh, Andreas L. Farberg, Helena Ekstrom and Shuen Chan discussed various challenges faced by industry players, but most importantly – the need to balance reporting efforts and action.
- Honoré Achille Simo showed us that sustainability factors do impact property values, and as more information becomes available, we will better understand how mature that impact is.
- Shuen Chan explained L&G’s Place-based Impact Framework and their early adopters programme - although more difficult to measure, industry players are in a great position to intentionally deliver positive outcomes for local communities.
We would like to thank everyone for making this event a success, and a special thanks to all our dedicated speakers.
The first edition of this course was fully booked within 48 hours. If you are interested to join us for the second edition on 28 February 2024, please contact academy@inrev.org.