News Archives - Page 2 of 2 -

Health and equity in the built environment

January 3, 2023 by Sophie Taysom Comment Closed

I’m pleased to announce that I and Keyah Consulting Ltd are signatories of the Urban Land Institute’s Commitment to Health and Equity in the Built Environment. The Commitment is an actionable commitment. It is to affirm health and equity as core values of our work. It’s a call to action to those of us shaping of our cities and communities and decision-making processes tied to the built environment. It’s founded on the recognition that our decisions and actions have a significant impact on our lives and our communities. It also recognises our responsibility in supporting conditions that improve the health, environmental quality, economic vitality, and social equity of communities. I see my contribution, and that of Keyah Consulting’s, as promoting the importance of health and equity considerations across the built environment through talks, articles and promoting good work that is taking place. There’s also important work to be done through the ESG lens – in working with companies to embed these considerations across...

No BS ESG

November 29, 2022September 21, 2024 by Sophie Taysom Comment Closed

Today I had the opportunity to discuss no BS ESG at the Festival of Place. I spoke alongside Elaine Cresswell who spoke on biodiversity. With thanks to Christine Murray for the invitation. You can see slides from my presentation below. Get in touch if you’d like to chat. 2211 Festival of Place - No BS ESG (2)Download...

The District Show – Real estate and the UN SDGs

October 28, 2022November 21, 2022 by Sophie Taysom Comment Closed

Last week I was in Barcelona at the inaugural conference - The District. It brought together a range of specialists across real estate with a focus on investment. I had been invited for a panel discussion on how the real estate sector is contributing to delivery of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The main points I made include: That the SDGs are more thematic in nature than Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), factors. The SDGs are globally recognised and can be integrated into business strategy. However, it’s important in linking the SDGs to strategy that this is grounded in specific metrics i.e. there are 17 SDGs with a total of 169 targets. And that in the next iteration of these global goals, that we focus on a ‘just transition’ in terms of addressing, mitigating, and adapting, to climate change. The SDGs form an important part of my conversations with clients. I work with them to identify the most relevant SDGs, and the specific targets...

Value in real estate: Looking beyond the financials

June 27, 2022June 27, 2022 by Sophie Taysom Comment Closed

On 8 June, I had the opportunity to take part in a panel discussion at the FIABCI Congress, held in Paris. The topic for discussion was how do we add value in real estate while also improving the lives of end-users. Here I provide some of my thoughts on this topic. Context I view value through the lens of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations. I work with companies across the built environment to focus on how they create value. The end-user, whether this be occupiers, local communities, or employees, have to be very much part of the conversations on what constitutes value. Making the case The view of value in purely financial terms in real estate and the wider built environment is too narrow. Value needs to be considered in the context of the extent to which activities improve social, environmental and economic wellbeing. And this involves engagement from every discipline including for example, engineers, architects, designers, planners, builders, asset owners and managers. The priority...