Expert Voice on Sustainability, Climate Risk, and Insurance Across Real Assets
As a Financial Times Sustainable Views contributor and advisor to organisations navigating complex sustainability challenges, I work at the intersection of climate risk, real assets, and the built environment – translating regulatory complexity into clear financial and operational strategy.
My focus spans three connected domains: decarbonisation and sustainability strategy for real estate portfolios; physical climate risk and adaptation, including how flooding, heat stress, and subsidence are being priced and managed across asset classes; and the growing tension between real asset ownership and an insurance market repricing or withdrawing from climate-exposed properties.
I bring working knowledge of the regulatory landscape shaping these issues – TCFD, mandatory climate disclosure, the EU Taxonomy, and evolving expectations around nature and biodiversity risk – helping organisations understand not just current requirements, but where policy is heading.
The risks at this intersection are no longer theoretical. They are showing up in insurance premiums, mortgage availability, and asset valuations. Organisations that understand this shift early are better positioned to protect value, access capital, and build resilience.
I am available for speaking engagements, panel discussions, media interviews, and expert commentary for audiences across real estate, investment, insurance, and policy.
Speaking engagements
- Edge Debate 185 – Urban Climate: How do we connect land value and built form to create liveable cities?, 2025
- ESG and sustainability in the UK and EU contexts, Presentation to a Delegation from Japan to Connected Places Catapult, 2025
- Navigating European ESG requirements – a crucial guide for General Counsel, Trowers & Hamlin, 2025
- Navigating the new European sustainability reporting landscape, Submit.com, 2024
- Climate Resilience Measures: Perspectives from Insurance and Real Estate industries, Evintel’s 2nd Annual UK Real Estate ESG and Data Management Conference, 2024
- Unlocking the Path to Net Zero: Strategies for effective integration of sustainability, RICS Building Surveying Conference, London, 2024
- ESG in Build to Rent: From strategy to practice on governance considerations, ARL annual conference, 2024
- Sustainability for Small and Medium Enterprises, Southwark Chamber of Commerce, 2023
- How to avoid greenwashing in real estate, Re: Women, and The Society of Property Researchers, 2023
- ESG 2.0 and non-financial reporting in the built world, PiLabs, 2023
- No BS in real estate, Festival of Place, 2022
- Real estate and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the District Show, Barcelona, 2022
- Value in real estate: Looking beyond the financials, FIABCI World Real Estate Congress, Paris, 2022
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Interviews
- Sophie Taysom – Much more to ESG than box-ticking, Connected Places Catapult, 2024
- 5 minutes with Dr Sophie Taysom, Interview with Collingwood’s Head of Building Products & Construction, Mark Goldsmith, 2024
- Smart Homes for Healthier Ageing, The Institute of Engineering and Technology, 2023
- Social climbing: How developers can help build equality, MODUS, the magazine from RICS, 2023
- Smart homes offer solutions for seniors ageing in place, E&T, the magazine of The Institution of Engineering & Technology, 2023
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Articles
- Australia’s National Climate Risk Assessment makes the case for financing adaptation, Financial Times Sustainable Views, 2025
- Putting banks and insurers on notice to better manage climate risks, With Dee Korab, Financial Times Sustainable Views, 2025
- It’s time to stop talking about the cost of social value and start talking about the added value, BENews, 2024
- The Urban Canvas – The social value of street art (with Moritz Tonn), The Property Chronicle, 2024
- ESG and taking a ‘retrofit first’ approach, The Property Chronicle, 2024
- Getting the finance right for retrofit, The Building Centre, London, 2024
- The Proof is in the Pudding: Staff turnover as a core KPI for ESG, The Property Chronicle, 2024
- Why is ESG so complicated? A plea for simplicity, The Property Chronicle, 2024
- Climate risk as insurance risk – ESG and materiality, The Property Chronicle, 2023
- Airing the dirty laundry (or greenwash at your peril), The Property Chronicle, 2023
- The ‘S’ of ESG is about more than just planting trees, BENews, 2023
- Delivering ESG through supply chains – It’s complicated, The Property Chronicle, 2023
- Sustainable Surcharge, Facilities Management Journal – FMJ, 2023
- ESG needs to become part of the DNA of new developments, Scottish Construction Now, 2022
- Making ESG Count – The role of proptech, The digital high street: Smart public space, 2021
