_ESG Ambassador stories: Sustainability in Spain and beyond
Elaine Beachill is a Director of BTR, Retail & Hospitality in Capital Markets at Knight Frank. Based in Madrid, Spain, Elaine joined the global ESG Ambassador Network to collaborate with other regions, share knowledge, and drive the sustainability agenda with her clients.
What is your biggest inspiration in the sustainability space?
Nature itself is my biggest inspiration. It’s our greatest leader regarding sustainability, and we should take time to observe and learn from the natural world. Taking time to understand how nature ensures the sustainability of different ecosystems on its own accord is key to us learning the value we can add to natural processes and how we can help to re-establish diminishing habitats.
As someone who loves the ocean and is passionate about protecting it, I find people like Emily Penn, a British Ocean advocate, highly inspirational. She’s done a lot of work supporting scientific investigations into the relationship between plastics, toxins and health and cleaning up plastics from our waters worldwide.
Elaine Beachill, Director of BTR, Retail & Hospitality in Capital Markets at Knight Frank
What’s the market like in Europe surrounding ESG?
The market around ESG is now moving at a very fast pace and is generally being led by institutional players. ESG is no longer an 'option' or 'add-on' and is becoming more and more binary for investors, particularly when considering new build projects within their portfolios. In Europe, there has been a considerable move in terms of reporting. More and more landlords are using benchmarking platforms and tools such as GRESB and CRREM to monitor and measure their ESG performance.
ESG is now paramount for investors in Living Sectors and is an important factor for residents when choosing a home to rent. This has been reported as being particularly important amongst student and young professional segments. As a result, landlords are putting more importance on making sure their buildings are appropriately certified to help to attract and retain residents. A good example is the PBSA scheme Student Experience Amsterdam Minervahaven in The Netherlands, which is amongst the most sustainable PBSA schemes in Europe, having obtained BREEAM-NL In-Use Excellent.
In Spain, real estate companies and developers are moving quickly, but there is still a long way to go. The participation of Spanish companies in GRESB has grown by 50% since 2020. As in other countries, one of the greatest barriers to achieving net zero in Spain is the production and use of energy, particularly in construction which represents approximately 5.7% of Spanish GDP. According to GRESB, 70% of Spanish organisations currently produce renewable energy on-site, but only 0.2% of real estate assets have been declared net zero to date. The European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which is currently in draft, requires that all existing residential buildings in Spain have a minimum energy rating of E by 2030 and a minimum of D by 2033.
Wittywood building in Barcelona, Spain
I am fortunate to have been inspired by projects from many different players that target both the E (environment) and the S (social) of ESG. For example, the Spanish real estate company Inmobiliaria Colonial recently developed the first timber office project in 22@ Barcelona, Spain. The building named WittyWood was designed for LEED Platinum and WELL Platinum certification and is a leading ESG example in the Spanish office market.
Last year Catella launched the World’s First ‘Energy-Positive’ Residential Impact Fund to invest in Elithis Towers in France. These buildings are designed to deliver both operational carbon neutrality and effective affordable rents for residents through the elimination of domestic energy bills. Something I believe all developments should aim to achieve.
It is exciting to see innovators taking the lead in the real estate sector with these types of developments and initiatives. It will be great to see how similar projects are rolled out over the short and medium term.
What is the biggest opportunity for you and your team in the next year, 5, 10 years?
Over the short term, it is important for teams to educate themselves in all aspects of ESG to continue to provide valuable advice to clients. The opportunity lies in ensuring that we have the correct knowledge base to provide leading innovative intelligence in the ESG space. In Spain particularly, over both the short and medium term, there will be opportunities to bridge the understanding of ESG requirements between institutional players, operators, and private clients to secure successful transactions. Looking long term, all of this should become a fundamental and profitable part of our day-to-day business.
What do you believe creates the biggest change?
Elaine at Forest School
Environmental education is extremely important to me. Sustainability is about future safeguarding, and the only way to ensure we consolidate this path is to invest in education on the subject matter. Environmental issues and conservation should be a top subject in school curriculums across the globe and an important part of staff training at all levels if we really want to make a difference. We all need to advocate for sustainability and need to arm ourselves and others with the necessary support and tools to make change happen.
The ESG landscape is vast and can feel overwhelming, but we all need to start somewhere. From a professional point of view, I would encourage people to spend time learning and training themselves in ESG-related matters.
On a personal level, it’s more about implementing the day-to-day, smaller actions that can make a difference in our communities. There are endless suggestions, such as using less water, less plastic, litter picking, tree planting and volunteering to name a few. Pick the ones that work for you and encourage others to do the same. Every action, insignificant as it may seem, will count if we all jointly advocate for sustainability.
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