VIDEO | The increasing importance of ESG in residential development 

Balancing profits with the need to embed sustainability into schemes and boosting social value for residents were among the topics discussed at a roundtable sponsored by ClearFibre. 

The roundtable shone a light on how developers and building managers are approaching the issue of ESG and the strategies they are implementing to make assets more appealing to investors and residents. 

The participants were: 

  • Conor Flood – development manager at Cole Waterhouse 
  • Victoria Russell – director of brand, strategy and partnerships at Property Alliance Group 
  • John Leutton – chief executive at Intelligent Building Group 
  • Paul Eaton – chief commercial officer at ClearFibre 
  • Sabine Dunstan – development surveyor at One Heritage Group  
  • Anthony Kingdon – director at The Ringley Group 

The discussion was hosted by Place North West’s senior reporter Dan Whelan and sponsored by ClearFibre, a leading broadband provider. 

Watch the roundtable in the video below. You can also watch the video on Place North West‘s YouTube channel. 

Key talking points: 

Conor Flood – “ESG doesn’t need to be expensive… Building a building that is insulated well, and reducing heat demand at the point of consumption is not something that needs to be expensive. However, it does tend to be something that’s first on the chopping block when you’re experiencing high inflation.” 

Victoria Russell – “We own and manage a lot of our portfolio and when you’re actually in it for the long game – doing the design at the beginning and then having to actually live with the building – it’s worth the investment. For some people that come in and do development, and then walk away, you don’t actually see some of the pain.” 

John Leutton – “Let’s face it, in property, they’ll always be people who just want to make a , quick buck but if you want to now develop a building and sell it to one of these big funds, they are not going to buy it unless your building is green. 

Paul Eaton – “When you look at institutional investors, and you look at brands like the guys who’ve got around the table today you don’t want to be retrofitting your buildings in two three, four years’ time” 

Sabine Dunston – “Towers will still have a place in several years. When you start thinking about the embodied carbon and the environmental aspect, it’s really easy to sort of argue them away. But they’re very different to building 200 homes on the Green Belt where everybody owns two cars. There are still really strong arguments for having this city centre, high density living.” 

Anthony Kingdon – “Once you go into post-completion and the building is live, everything can fluidly change. And if you are set up, future-proofed with good technology, good design and good spaces, then you can let things grow the way they want to grow rather than forcing something. That’s probably a really good way of keeping things sustainable. Not just environmentally, but economically.” 

 

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