“We cannot go on as we are, but we are unsure of where to go next”, said two panels of speakers at our first London networking breakfast of 2020.

On Brexit Friday, the Movers & Shakers network gathered to hear two distinguished panels discuss how the real estate marketplace delivers real change.

The speakers spoke very openly and passionately about the opportunities and challenges the built environment, the property industry and investors face from a climate change and sustainability perspective.

The first panel featured Chris Grigg of British Land, Julie Hirigoyen of UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) Darren Rodwell of London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, and Richard Upton of U+I. The panel was chaired by Faraz Baber of Terence O’Rourke.

The panel opened with a statement from Julie Hirigoyen. “I’ve never seen more chat about sustainability than we’ve seen in the past six months. However, we need less commitment to becoming more sustainable and more action. One wouldn’t normally expect the safety of the environment, or our planet, to be such a radical issue.”

Darren Rodwell chimed in with his experiences in London. “The government needs to stop playing politics with people’s lives. What we’re building today, we’ll need to retrofit tomorrow. It would cost my council £1.4 billion to retrofit the homes we own in the Borough. Impossible. We must have the ability to support the evolution of building for the future.”

For Chris Grigg at British Land, it’s all about opportunity. Grigg said: “There is both an opportunity and a cost associated with making our buildings more sustainable. Occupiers want greener buildings, and so do investors.” He cautioned that retrofit is going to be a real challenge for the industry.

Whilst Richard Upton expressed that this is a time of great opportunity. He said: “We have an opportunity to reinvent and repair our built environment. We must go beyond the profit motive to ensure lasting impact. We must provide soulful transformation when regenerating areas. There’s a need to walk the streets, talk to local people and really understand the people. Look at what’s broken and fix it. But it’s not a cookie cutter approach.”

The first panel closed with a discussion of the panelists’ outlook for the year ahead. Chris Grigg was optimistic about capital returning to the UK. Darren Rodwell feels that we are on the edge of the unknown, and hopes that the coming year will lessen the suffering of the less fortunate. For Julie Hirigoyen, the answer lies in collaboration and integration, and for Richard Upton, the year will depend on whether we can solve the productivity issue inherent in sustainability.

The second panel of the morning featured Abigail Dean of Nuveen Real Estate, Bill Hughes of Legal & General Investment Management, Nina Reid of M&G Real Estate, Peter Pereira Gray of Wellcome Trust, and Paul Sutcliffe of EVORA Global. The panel was chaired by Rebekah Paczek of PLMR/Snapdragon.

Abigail Dean opened the panel with discussions of the future: “The real estate marketplace will look very different in the next 20 years, and we must engage with that future.” She also cautioned those looking for a quick fix: “We need to avoid a very sudden policy shift. The industry needs time to change, or we risk accomplishing nothing at all.”

For Paul Sutcliffe, inaction is part of the problem. “Sustainability is hard to quantify. Not much appears to be happening at the moment, and it’s freezing the industry,” he said. “We’ve got to get the whole industry moving. We need to be passionate about driving change.”

Peter Pereira Gray made an interesting point about the importance of collaboration: “We cannot act in isolation. Real estate is a complex asset with a complex supply chain. We need a holistic, joined-up approach to impact real change. I’m optimistic about what we can achieve, but make no mistake: this is a war, and in order to change anything we must treat it as such.”

Nina Reid made an interesting point, citing: “As sustainability becomes more important to the consumer, it will become more important to the investor. Many people are going to start moving their money. Where that money is invested will have the biggest impact on sustainability.”

Bill Hughes echoed her sentiments, saying: “Our industry needs a big change that will shock the market, but beyond that, we must do the right things for the source of our capital. How we invest our capital is about protecting, not destroying our future.”

We live in uncertain times, but one thing is certain: the outcome of climate change is up to choice, not to chance, and we must continue to ask ourselves and one another the difficult questions.