Building Zero Carbon Britain Conference

Barings – Kristina Arsenievich, Director, European Real Estate ESG

Barings is a $382+ billion global investment manager building long-term portfolios across public and private fixed income, real estate and specialist equity markets. They have a significant presence in the UK across several asset classes and recently secured a mandate to invest £250 million in UK real estate debt. Kristina was recently appointed as ESG Director and will lead the ESG strategy for European Real Estate and launch carbon neutral and climate resilience policies that will aid the delivery of Barings Net Zero Carbon ambition. She has over 10 years of experience in sustainability leadership and was previously in charge of sustainability for Canary Wharf Group.

Ssassy Property – Ian Pritchett, Director

Ssassy are a sustainable regeneration developer based in Oxfordshire who are working on the low carbon Springfield Meadows development.

TfL Property – Derek Wilson, Head of Sustainability

TFL have been working for over two years on their Sustainable Development Framework and have used the framework to drive sustainability performance across more than 20 major property development projects. The SDF is unique in the sector for its holistic view, robust methodology, and site-specific approach which has delivered results on the ground – using the framework TFL have achieved a 56% reduction in carbon emissions, an average of 4.4 Stars under Home Quality Mark, and were recently recognised by GRESB as the most sustainable diversified developer in Europe with a score of 97/100! TFL are also implementing their new net zero pathway which will see them become carbon neutral across the entire business by 2030 and in certain divisions (property development) potentially by 2025. Derek will be on hand to discuss these plans in more detail.

One Public Estate – Laura Shepherd, Head of Commercial Strategy

One of the architects of the One Public Estate agenda, Laura is a major advocate of placing net zero at the heart of public sector development. Laura will talk about how zero carbon developments fit into their strategy of unlocking value in public sector assets across their 300+ current projects.

University of Strathclyde – Dr Roddy Yarr, Assistant Director Estates Sustainability

Strathclyde University is a pioneer in climate neutral projects – currently developing a £500 million, 100% renewable, climate resilient area within Glasgow City Innovation District (GCID). Bringing climate friendly solutions for urban developments in the Glasgow region, partnered with Glasgow city council. Dr Roddy Yarr will be joining the session to discuss the future of modern environmentally friendly developments, sustainability plans and the drive to NetZero.

Aston University – Andrew Bryers, Energy, Environment and Sustainability Manager

Andrew leads the sustainability team in the university’s estates and capital development. Andrew will give an overview of Aston’s carbon management plan will reveal the university’s future sustainable development pipeline.

Grosvenor Group – Lucy Puddle, Project Director

Grosvenor has major ambitions to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from a development and design perspective across their major projects. We’ll hear from Lucy who has played a major role in Grosvenor’s sustainability drive in their London pipeline, including in their latest £500 million build to rent scheme.

RDRL – Ken Ross, Chief Executive Officer

As part of the DunBear Park development, RDRL are developing over 100 new homes alongside the retail and leisure units, drive-thru units, a hotel, offices, a nursery, care home and elderly amenity flats, also being developed. As a key developer across Scotland, Ken will be able to share what he believes are the biggest challenges facing Scotland in relation to housing, and what the key solutions may be.

Renewable UK – Barnaby Wharton, Director of Future Electricity Systems

RenewableUK is the trade association for wind power, wave power and tiday power industries in the UK.   The association carries out research, and co-ordinates statistics and intelligence on marine and wind power in the UK and its waters.  Barnaby will tell us more about the role renewables will play in helping Britain reach its zero carbon target.

Lendlease – Paul King, Managing Director, Sustainability & Social Impact – Europe

Lendlease are involved in some of the most expansive developments in the UK, which will see thousands of homes built and billions of pounds invested. Paul is tasked with making Lendlease zero carbon and he will reveal more details about how they will achieve this goal and the role the company will play in building zero carbon Britain.

Harwell Science & Innovation Campus – Emma Southwell-Sander, Energy Tech Cluster Manager

The 700 acre Harwell Campus is now home to over 200 organisations and 6,000 people representing 60 nationalities, spread across a number of Tech clusters (primarily Space, Energy and Health) which brings together a powerful, collaborative ecosystem of industry, academia and public sector bodies with £3bn of open access national laboratory facilities. Over the next 7 years the 700 acre campus is set to mature further with 5m sq ft of new development to accommodate more leading edge organisations and their world-class employees.

The Energy Tech Cluster has grown from its launch in 2018 to 80 organisations ranging from national infrastructure providers to startups and scaleups and 1,200+ employees and is continuing its significant expansion.

Reach Homes – Jon Johnson, Founder

Setting the standards as the market leader on the UK’s Eco Home scene, Jon and his team are overseeing a huge period of growth and focus their development on up-cycling major structures to create sustainable and green homes. Having won many national awards for their work, Reach are determined to change their product from niche to mainstream and will be talking about how their developments can offer an affordable and environmentally friendly solution to home building.

Bradford Estates – Alexander Newport, Managing Director

Bradford Estates have ambitious plans to build a net-zero carbon garden village-style development of 3,000 homes and 1.8 million sq ft of commercial space in Shropshire. Alex will take us through the significant benefits this scheme is set to bring to the local area including the creation of up to 8,000 jobs and a boost of around £390 million a year to the local economy.

Nuveen Real Estate – Abigail Dean, Head of Sustainability

Since joining Nuveen Real Estate, Abigail has overseen the organization’s sustainability remit setting a long-term target to reduce energy intensity by 30% by 2030. Abigail oversees Nuveen’s Sustainability Strategy, positioning them a global leader on Environmental, Social and Governance issues so that they can future-proof their buildings and enhance their value, whilst minimising the risk of accelerated depreciation and early obsolescence.

Nottinghamshire County Council – Wayne Bexton, Director of Green Growth, Investment and Assets

Clean Growth Fund – Beverley Gower-Jones, Managing Partner

The government is launching a new effort to support green start-up companies across the UK, joint-funding a £40 million venture capital fund to supercharge the development of next generation clean, low-carbon technologies. The Clean Growth Fund will contribute towards the UK’s plans to reach Net Zero by 2050 and will be accessible to UK-based companies driving green technology across the power, transport, waste, and building energy efficiency sectors. 

ABB – David Lowen, Product Marketing Director

ABB’s Mission to Zero is a carbon neutral and energy self-sufficient ecosystem for industry, homes and cities.

While many discuss the steps needed to combat the ever-increasing consequences of climate change, at ABB, we are committed to shaping the future of industry, cities and energy, today. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels.

David is ABB’s UK Product Marketing Director, responsible for the Smart Buildings portfolio, including Building Automation, creating infrastructures for Property Safety, Energy Distribution, Energy Management and e-Mobility. David specializes in renewable technologies and power protection (UPS) for some of the core growth segments for the UK.

ABB is a leading global technology company that energises the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future.

Joseph Homes – Douglas Fearon, Senior Technical Manager

Having won numerous awards Joseph Homes are becoming more and more known for their development activity – particularly due to the craft and care they put into delivering a characterful home.

They’re constantly looking for ways to make life better and to help people – through beautiful design, sustainable materials or cutting-edge technologies.

As a firm that’s pushing the boundaries to build better, innovative, sustainable and progressive homes they’ll be in a great position to discuss their approach to development and their future plans at this event.

One of their most recently announced schemes is Sylvan Grove at Old Kent Road where they’re currently in the planning stage for 219 new homes and 33,000 sq ft of office space – part of a wider scheme to develop two towers on central square just five minutes from the Bakerloo Line extension.