CBRE appoints Kaela Fenn-Smith as Managing Director, Sustainability Services & ESG, UK&I
Global real estate advisor, CBRE, has today announced it has appointed UK Executive Board member, Kaela Fenn-Smith, as Managing Director, Sustainability Services & ESG for its UK & Ireland business [effective immediately.] This senior appointment reflects CBRE’s ongoing commitment to enhancing and expanding its range of Sustainability and ESG capabilities for clients. Kaela joined CBRE in November 2020 as Head of UK Advisory & Transaction Investor Services and will continue to oversee CBRE’s strategy on A&T Investor services, of which Sustainability will form a critical part.
In her new role, Kaela will be responsible for implementing the firm’s growth strategy of Sustainability services and providing sustainability advice across the business. CBRE’s established Environmental Consultancy team provides expert guidance on defining and implementing ESG Strategies, managing Environmental Risks, Net Zero strategies, enhancing Sustainability and Wellbeing, Impact Assessments, Social Value Impact, and enabling clients to progress sustainable improvements at each touch point in the lifecycle of their assets.
Kaela’s appointment follows a series of key hires which have continued to strengthen CBRE’s Sustainability & ESG capabilities, including Sophia Gibson (nee Cox) who joined earlier this year as Social Value Lead, alongside Sam Carson who has both joined CBRE’s UK Valuation business with a focus on valuing sustainability.
CBRE’s 55-strong Environmental Consultancy team has a successful track record of achieving excellent results for private, public and not-for-profit clients. The team has also been awarded a number of accolades, including Winner of the 2021 EDIE Sustainability Leaders Award for Employee Engagement and Behaviour Change Initiative of the Year for its Stickerbook initiative.
In September, as part of its net-zero strategy, CBRE Group, globally signed on to The Climate Pledge, a group of companies and organizations led by Amazon and Global Optimism that have committed to achieving net-zero carbon ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement deadline. Earlier this year, CBRE published its first Environmental, Social and Governance report for United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Advisory, which details CBRE UK’s commitment to net zero by 2030.
We recognise the unprecedented social and environmental challenges facing our industry today and we are committed to build back better through our people, clients and industry partnerships. In this new role, Kaela will help us drive impactful and meaningful change on behalf of clients and the wider built environment and ensure sustainability is integral to everything we do from how we operate as a business, to serving our clients in helping them meet their own targets.
We have an enormous opportunity to influence the behaviour of the property sector, both as a business, and through our relationships with our clients and peers. I am looking forward to taking on this huge growth opportunity, where we can deliver exceptional results for our clients whilst driving forward positive change across the industry, influencing pace on social impact and decarbonising the built environment.