Two-day programme brings together global investors, asset managers and policymakers to tackle decarbonisation, data intelligence and the trillion-dollar housing transition
LONDON, July 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sustainable Real Estate Forum (SREF) last week concluded its two-day programme at London Climate Action Week 2026, convening senior practitioners from across the real estate investment ecosystem to address the industry's most pressing challenge: translating ESG ambition into investment-grade decisions.
Held across two venues on 23–24 June, the event convened representatives from PATRIZIA, The Crown Estate, M&G Real Estate, Barclays, INREV, RICS, Aberdeen Investments, PGIM, PIMCO, SwissLife, PI Labs, Kompas, Optiml, Recogizer and Westbridge, among others.
Day One — 23 June
The Clubhouse, Eighth Floor, Spacehouse, 12 Kemble Street, London
Opening Address — Susanne Eickermann-Riepe FRICS (Senior Vice President, RICS)
The day opened with an address by Susanne Eickermann-Riepe FRICS, Senior Vice President at RICS, who set a deliberately unsentimental tone: "It's all about materiality, not morality." Drawing on RICS research and the IMF's April 2026 World Economic Outlook, she argued that sustainability now improves cash flows, growth assumptions and discount rates simultaneously, while geopolitical instability — a record 65 state-based armed conflicts in 2025 — is accelerating the repricing of non-resilient assets. AI, she added, will polarise the valuation profession, automating routine work while elevating judgement-intensive roles.
Panel 1 — From Data Abundance to Decision Intelligence
Moderated by Cecile Babcock (Principal Advisor for Global Investment, SREF), with panellists Susanne Eickermann-Riepe FRICS (RICS), Emma Williamson (M&G Real Estate), Sezgin Isguzar (The Crown Estate), Dr. Marcelo Cajias (PATRIZIA) and Felix Ottersbach (Recogizer).
The panel examined how leading managers convert ESG and performance data into consistent portfolio decisions — from regulatory compliance to data as a strategic asset, the emergence of a "brown discount" for non-resilient assets in secondary markets, and AI's role in normalising fragmented building data. Dr. Cajias described how PATRIZIA applies machine learning across its €45 billion real estate portfolio, scoring locations on a 0–100 scale that now informs investment committee decisions. Sezgin Isguzar of The Crown Estate shared how energy-carbon performance data shaped capital allocation on four Central London properties ahead of the firm's 2030 decarbonisation targets.
Panel 2 — Silent Capital, Loud Consequences: The LP Perspective on Real Estate Management
With panellists Hannah Stern (Recogizer), Nico Dehnert (Optiml), Adam Savitz (Westbridge), Bernd Bechheim (Aberdeen Investments), Michele Bruno (PIMCO) and Andrew Price (ex-Shaftesbury Capital).
This session examined LP demands for genuine transparency and operational alpha as financial leverage fades as the primary return driver. Panellists agreed that as refinancing pressure, the denominator effect and decarbonisation costs turn reporting questions into strategic capital-allocation decisions, backward-looking ESG reports and static PDFs are no longer sufficient: reporting is not the same as governance. Speakers called for asset managers to shift from reactive administration to active value creation — shared data environments instead of static reports, scenarios instead of single-point assumptions, and rolling capital decisions instead of rigid annual budgets.
"The future of real estate will not be defined by who reports best. It will be defined by who makes better decisions — and can defend them." — Nico Dehnert, Optiml
Day Two — SREF x PATRIZIA 24 June
PATRIZIA HQ, 24 Endell Street, Covent Garden, London
Opening Keynote — Gulnara Roll (Chief of Sectoral Transition, UN Environment Programme)
The day opened with a keynote from Gulnara Roll, Chief of Sectoral Transition at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and secretariat lead for the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, who set out the scale of the challenge: almost 40% of global CO₂ emissions and 28% of global energy consumption originate from the building and construction sector, against an estimated $3.4 trillion shortfall in additional energy investment needed by 2030 (OECD). She pointed to a lack of granular hazard data as the leading barrier to climate risk assessment, and called on private capital to engage directly with the Intergovernmental Council for Building and Climate — now spanning 74 countries — ahead of COP31 in Antalya.
"Affordable housing has to be sustainable, and sustainable housing has to be affordable." — Gulnara Roll, UNEP
Panel 1 — The Trillion-Dollar Housing Transition
Moderated by Cecile Babcock (SREF), with panellists Zoe Lamb (Barclays), Ben Lonsdale (PATRIZIA), Nico Dehnert (Optiml) and Jeff Rupp (INREV).
The panel examined why capital for European residential decarbonisation remains largely undeployed. Panellists concluded that the barrier is not capital availability — INREV's latest investor intentions survey found 87% of global and 89% of European investors ranked residential their most preferred sector for 2026 — but decision-making frameworks, standardisation and the complexity of retrofitting occupied stock. Nico Dehnert of Optiml introduced the concept of "decision latency", citing a Hamburg portfolio of 10,000 units where capital sat undeployed for years amid shifting regulation and unset local requirements. Panellists agreed that waiting for perfect data is itself a costly decision.
"Fund managers are paid to price risk. Waiting is not the option." — Ben Lonsdale, PATRIZIA
Panel 2 — Innovation & Risk Mitigation
With panellists Bruno Blavier (SwissLife), Shreya Sheth (PATRIZIA), Evan Petkov (Optiml), Naqash Tahir (PGIM), Hugo Conceição Silva (PI Labs) and Victoria Burrows (Kompas).
This session explored how PropTech and ClimateTech are moving from pilots into mainstream institutional workflows. Panellists described a market stratified between firms with clear top-down AI mandates and those lacking guidance, with Evan Petkov of Optiml warning against the "pilot trap" and stressing the need for an internal "shepherd" to drive adoption. Bruno Blavier of SwissLife set out concrete vendor criteria — ecosystem integration and a genuine partnership mindset — and described major progress on climate risk data, with SwissLife targeting 100% portfolio coverage within 18 months. Naqash Tahir of PGIM argued that technology must remove steps from existing workflows, not add to them, and be transparent and auditable to support defensible IC decisions. Across the panel, the consensus was that institutional adoption is no longer a question of innovation but of repeatability — whether a solution can integrate, be audited and scale.
About the Sustainable Real Estate Forum
The Sustainable Real Estate Forum (SREF) is a global platform convening senior practitioners at the intersection of capital, innovation and climate. SREF advances the integration of financial and environmental sustainability across real estate investment, with a particular focus on decision-grade data, transition pathways and institutional capital deployment.
For further information: www.sustainablerealestateforum.com
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