Alexa Culver

General counsel, Environment Bank

As a lawyer with more than 12 years’ experience in land and planning-based projects and in the emerging fields of Natural Capital and environmental legislation, Culver ensures all legal aspects of the Habitat Bank model are robust, and legal transactions progress smoothly as EB brings forward its national network of Habitat Banks.

John Davies

Head of sustainability, Derwent London

Davies is head of sustainability at Derwent London and sits on the executive committee. He is responsible for leading the company-wide sustainability and responsibility agendas. John is a recognised sustainability expert in the commercial property sector and has been instrumental in creating a number of industry-leading sustainability programmes and strategies. Prior to joining Derwent London, John was head of sustainability at Davis Langdon, where he was responsible for developing and delivering its range of sustainability services. His topics of expertise include real estate ESG strategy, climate risk, net-zero carbon by 2030, prioritising the reduction of carbon emissions, long-term approach, responsible business and collaborative solutions.

Faye Dasi-Sutton

ESG and sustainability manager, FEC Development Management

Dasi-Sutton joined FEC as ESG and sustainability manager in November 2022. She is responsible for developing and leading FEC’s ESG and sustainability strategy. This includes defining best practice across all areas of its environmental management, employer of choice, cultivating community and placemaking values. Prior to joining FEC, Dasi-Sutton worked in financial services, waste management and construction and manufacturing. She also has experience in developing and leading the implementation of governance structures, tooling solutions and net zero ambitions and action plans.

Nektarios Gkanis

Senior manager, commercial real estate lead, Carbon Trust

Gkanis has more than a decade of UK and international experience, and is the Carbon Trust’s commercial real estate lead. He is working on advising Carbon Neutral Real Estate, a niche commercial real estate fund, and other commercial real estate clients on their net zero carbon strategies, carbon footprint, and climate-related risks for their portfolios. Gkanis represents the Carbon Trust at the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, where he sits on the technical steering group, and is chairing Task Group 3 – Reporting, Disclosure & Verification. He has previously participated on other UKGBC initiatives, and working groups of Better Buildings.

Dr Tanja Groth

Director, Carbon Limiting Technologies

Groth is a renewables economist and works with innovators and governments to enable the new technologies and solutions we need to adapt and thrive in a world increasingly susceptible to impacts from climate chang. She has previously worked as business unit director with Sweco, manager with Carbon Trust, senior economist with London Economics and business development manager with Stirling.DK. She is a non-executive director with Energetik, a London borough-owned district heating network, and is a member of the British Institute of Energy Economics.

Anne Johnstone

Head of ESG, Vita Energi

Johnstone is an experienced ESG professional with more than 20 years’ experience in environmental and sustainability consultancy, with a particular focus on the built environment. She has held positions in leading environmental and building consultancies andran her own business supporting real estate funds through the implementation of ESG and net zero strategies before recently joining Vital Energi as head of ESG. 

Tessa Kelly

Director of development, Habitat for Humanity GB

Kelly is the director of development at Habitat for Humanity GB. A partnerships specialist, with an in-depth understanding and experience of working with UK private sector partners to develop purpose and engagement-led transformational relationships, she leads a team of fundraisers in building relationships with funders, supporters and partners, to deliver income and impact. She has driven the fundraising strategy for the GB Empty Spaces to Homes project, securing support from the UK private sector to transform empty and defunct spaces into decent and affordable homes for the most vulnerable. As well as securing fundraising commitments, she has mobilised the private sector’s expertise, leadership and connections to develop the GB Empty Spaces to Homes coalition, and to share in-depth knowledge and experience to support the production of the Empty Spaces to Homes toolkit.

Christopher Kerr

Client director & head of ESG, Davitt Jones Bould

Kerr heads up the environmental, social and governance special ionterest group at Davitt Jones Bould, the UK’s largest firm to specialise entirely in real estate law. He has a particular focus on biodiversity and natural capital, town and city regeneration projects, charitable organisations and the public sector. He has been an active member of Habitat for Humanity’s Empty Spaces to Homes Coalition, helping to drive forward the scheme to solve the housing crisis. Kerr holds a number of board and advisory roles at non-profits and volunteers with the Cranfield Trust, where he mentors and consults CEOs and board members of non-profits in crisis. 

Vivienne King

Head of real estate social impact, The Good Economy

King is head of real estate social impact at The Good Economy, a leading social impact consultancy. She is an accomplished business leader with more than 30 years’ senior experience in the real estate industry. King has taken a leading role in integrating ESG into business delivery as a strategic imperative. As  a member of the senior executive team at the Crown Estate, she led sustainability between 2007-2016, building its sustainability strategies and breaking new ground with its total contribution measurement methodology and as chief executive of Revo she drove publication of its social value framework. As chief executive of London’s West End Soho Housing Association, King has first-hand experience of social value creation on real-world outcomes in urban environments and as a co founder and former chair of Real Estate Balance, she has been championing equality diversity and inclusion within a business, as well as within communities.

Alexia Laird

NZCBS task group for embodied carbon and sustainability director, Landsec

Laird leads on sustainable design across Landsec’s extensive development pipeline comprising of prime commercial office developments, major refurbishments as well as large urban regeneration masterplans. Her role is to shape the environmental sustainability and net zero strategy for all planning, design and construction activities and deliver on ambitious targets. Before joining Landsec in 2019, Laird worked for a large engineering consultancy and a developer and contractor, bringing wide-ranging experience in the built environment. She is heavily involved in a number of industry forums, including the net zero carbon building standard and the mass timber developer working group.

Smith Mordak

Chief executive, UK Green Building Council

As UKGBC chief executive, Mordak is leading the organisation through a critical period for the UK to get back on track towards net zero. Combining their deep science-based understanding of the climate emergency with a principled approach to transforming our built environment, Mordak is a committed and passionate advocate for building a future economy where people, society and ecology can flourish. Mordak’s distinguished career includes leadership roles in architecture and engineering firms Buro Happold, Webb Yates Engineers and Studio Weave, as well as authorship of several high-impact initiatives and reports, including to COP26 in Glasgow. They have also held a wide range of industry positions from which they have campaigned for a just transition to a more sustainable future, including as board member for the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy and the Architecture Foundation, and as a nationally elected councillor at RIBA.

Stuart Paterson

Head of impact, Utopi

Paterson has had a long career in client, account and relationship management. He is the head of customer success at Utopi and oversees all client relationships post-install. When it comes to getting true value out of Utopi ESG technology, he is your man – from data analysis and reporting to mapping the trends across your real estate and managing resident engagement campaigns with some of the biggest names in property across the UK and Europe.

Stuart Patience

Dirtector, Hollis

Patience is head of energy solutions and the energy and utilities sector at international, independent real estate consultancy Hollis. He is an experienced real estate professional with more than 15 years spent working in the solar industry, helping to design, plan and develop PV projects for industrial developments. His work ranges from initial feasibility reports and remote desktop assessments through to specification development, bid appraisals, contractor selection and project management. Since joining Hollis in 2021, Patience has been instrumental in developing the firm’s energy solution service, providing strategic advice focused on clients’ ESG goals and aspirations.

Stuart Patience

Dirtector, Hollis

Patience is head of energy solutions and the energy and utilities sector at international, independent real estate consultancy Hollis. He is an experienced real estate professional with more than 15 years spent working in the solar industry, helping to design, plan and develop PV projects for industrial developments. His work ranges from initial feasibility reports and remote desktop assessments through to specification development, bid appraisals, contractor selection and project management. Since joining Hollis in 2021, Patience has been instrumental in developing the firm’s energy solution service, providing strategic advice focused on clients’ ESG goals and aspirations.

Arun Rao

Interim principal policy and programmes officer, Greater London Authority

Rao works in the climate change mitigation team at the GLA, leading on London’s whole life cycle carbon policy and implementing the London Plan’s new-build sustainability policies. This is all in support of the mayor’s goal for London to be a net-zero carbon city by 2030.

Simon Rogers

Partner, Montagu Evans

Rogers has more than 12 years’ experience advising in a consultancy and agency capacity on development lead projects in London and the South East. Rogers’ particular focus is on enhancing and realising the development potential of investment assets. He provides advice throughout the lifespan of an asset and its business plan, including acquisition agency and due diligence, development option analysis and promotion, pre-planning development management and disposals.

Steve Sanham

Founding partner, Common Projects

Sanham established Common Projects in 2021: a development company led by a purpose to put people and planet at the heart of its decision-making. He has an extensive and proven track record in the built environment, specialising in urban regeneration and in using the power of development to deliver better outcomes. One of the sector’s most creative and committed developers, over the past 20 years Sanham has overseen the delivery of more than 2,500 homes across the UK, with a particular focus on innovation and inclusivity – catalysing mixed-tenure schemes with a drive to connect to and develop for communities. Common Projects finances and delivers complex and game-changing development projects in London and the South East. Its engineering-led solutions to society’s need for both urban densification and carbon emission reduction include complex and meaningful repurposing and reuse projects.

Laura Starkey

Asset manager – group investments, City Developments

Starkey is a highly experienced chartered surveyor with a demonstrable history of working in the real estate industry. Skilled in asset management, working with tenants, lettings, residential investment property and residential homes, she now heads up the asset management of City Developments’ growing living sector portfolio in the UK. Investing in and extracting value from the company’s PBSA and BTR assets across regional cities, she is passionate about City Developments’ 60-year commitment to quality and sustainable spaces.

Lisette van Doorn

Chief executive, Europe, Urban Land Institute

As chief executive of Urban Land Institute Europe, van Doorn is responsible for the development of the institute’s activities across the region, including its pan-European conferences and more than 250 local meetings and events across 14 countries. She joined ULI from LIRE, her own consultancy business, which advises international institutional real estate investors and fund managers on strategy, organisational optimisation and portfolio structuring. Prior to this, van Doorn was country manager for CBRE Global Investors, where she managed a €1.6bn portfolio of assets in Italy and was fund manager of two shopping centre funds (€1.3bn) with assets in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Before joining CBRE Global Investors, van Doorn was founding chief executive for INREV, the European association for investors in non-listed real estate vehicles, for four and a half years. She started her career at ING Investment Management, where she held account manager and assistant controller positions before being made managing director of research and strategy for ING Real Estate Investment Management Europe.

Emily Wright

Head of content, EG

Wright is head of content at EG, specialising in domestic and global real estate investment, the tech and start-up sectors, ESG, cities and the future of property design and development around the world. She has secured interviews with some of the biggest names in the industry and politics, including Sidewalk Labs founder Dan Doctoroff, Facebook’s global head of real estate, the co-founder of Tesla, architect Zaha Hadid and designer Sir Terence Conran. She is the host of EG’s long-running Tech Talk Radio podcast and is a passionate advocate for change and progress within the real estate sector.