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An Investment Managers Plan For Our Planet. with Peter Epping & Kathryn Scheckel

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Oct 18, 2022

Summary:  In the seventh episode of Season 10 of the
Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by
Peter Epping, Global Head of ESG and Kathryn Scheckel, Global Head of Innovation at Hines.

Peter and Kathryn will share how
their careers led them to ESG and innovation. The guests discuss
Hines’ target to reach net zero by 2040 and the strategy they are
going to use to get there. They talk about their key focus to bring
down the emissions of their current buildings.

In this episode you will hear
about how Hines are going to reduce energy demand in their vast
portfolio using both a customer centric approach and a variety of
tools and technologies that can help create more positive outcomes
for their communities and buildings. You’ll also hear how different
countries around the world are leading the charge towards net zero
by using innovation in building technology and renewable
energy.


Resources:


Companies Mentioned:


Shout Outs:


Key Insights From This Episode:  

  • In our view, innovation and ESG cannot operate
    one without the other – Kathryn
  • If you pick the best expertise from different
    places around the world you will arrive at a product that is better
    for everyone – Peter
  • The world is changing quickly so having
    curiosity and staying open to knowing what you don’t know is
    crucial – Kathryn
  • We need to solve this collectively to change
    our systems, the spirit of having realised that and everyone being
    willing to collaborate is really, in the literal sense, energising
    – Peter
  • Millennials applying for jobs are going to be
    much more conscious about the health of the building they’re going
    to be working in, and whether the business they’re going to be
    working for is making an impact – Louisa


About Our Guests:

Peter Epping:

Peter is Global Head of ESG, responsible for
developing and implementing the firm’s ESG strategy in close
coordination with the firm’s leadership, as well as its regional
and key functional groups.

He previously served as Fund
Manager in Hines’ European Investment Management
Team. 

 

He joined the firm in 2001 and
until 2006 worked in various development roles with Hines Germany
and the Hines European Development Fund. In 2006, he became a
portfolio manager in the investment management team and starting
2013, he took on the role of fund manager of the Hines European
Core Fund. From 2014 until 2021 he was also responsible for
building three separate account portfolios investing across the
risk spectrum and asset classes in major European
cities.

 

Epping holds a degree of
economics business administration from University of Mannheim as
Diplom-Kaufmann and an MBA from Union College in
Schenectady.

 

Kathryn Scheckel:

Kathryn leads the Strategic Project Office in
delivering firm-wide strategies for complex, multi-stakeholder
projects involving internal and external parties, reporting to the
Office of the CEO. Additionally, she currently serves as the
Interim Head, Office of Innovation, reporting to the Global CIO. In
these capacities, Ms. Scheckel oversees the progress and
implementation of cross-functional initiatives at Hines that help
push the business forward.  

 

Prior to joining Hines, Ms.
Scheckel’s career includes strategic roles at McKinsey & Company in
New York, focusing on organisational strategy & commercial real
estate; and at Arizona State University serving in a variety of
roles including as a senior director in the Office of the
President, building & launching novel strategic partnerships,
including the Starbucks College Achievement
Plan.  

 

Ms. Scheckel is inspired to
connect and foster female talent in commercial real estate. Since
joining Hines in 2019, Kathryn has initiated the global relaunch of
OneHines Women’s Network, which strengthens and empowers diversity,
equity, and inclusion amongst women at Hines.

 

Ms. Scheckel received her
Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biosciences & Biotechnology,
Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance, and Masters in Public Policy
from Arizona State University. Aside from dividing her time between
Houston Headquarters and her home in New York City, Kathryn takes
joy in spending time with her family and travelling
extensively.

 

About Hines: 

Hines is a privately owned global real estate
investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 285 cities in 28
countries. Hines oversees investment assets under management valued
at approximately $90 billion. In addition, Hines provides
third-party property-level services to 373 properties totalling
114.2 million square feet. Historically, Hines has developed,
redeveloped or acquired approximately 1,530 properties, totalling
over 511 million square feet. The firm currently has more than 198
developments underway around the world. With extensive experience
in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and
a foundational commitment to ESG, Hines is one of the largest and
most-respected real estate organisations in the world.

 

About Our Host

Louisa Dickins

Louisa is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly
become the market leading global PropTech recruitment platform and
search consultancy with operations across North America, United
Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

To promote the industry she is
so passionate about, Louisa set up the Global podcast


‘The Propcast’
where she
hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join
her in conversation about innovation.


About LMRE

LMRE is globally recognised for leading the way in
Real Estate Tech & Innovation talent management.

From the outset our vision was
to become a global provider of the very best strategic talent to
the most innovative organisations in PropTech, ConTech, Smart
Buildings, ESG, Sustainability and Strategic Consulting.

At LMRE we are fully committed
at all times to exceed the expectations of our candidates and
clients by providing the very best advice and by unlocking
exclusive opportunities across our global network in the UK,
Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

 

Timestamps:

[2:35] Kathryn: How did you
become the leader of Hines’ innovation platform?

  • Working at Arizona State University was the
    foundational underpinning that drove my interest for innovation,
    unique ecosystems and enterprises that drive different types of
    solutions.
  • Following this, whilst working at
    McKinsey I was exposed to the global challenges the
    built environment faces.
  • I joined Hines’ investment management platform
    in 2019, at the time they were working to tackle and solve these
    challenges. From there I started a team with the intention to help
    cross-functional initiatives within the firm and our overall
    governance. I am now named our innovation lead in driving forward a
    reimagined way of approaching innovation.

[4:25] Peter: How did your role
in ESG come about?

  • I joined Hines after university, working on
    development projects around Europe. When the first rules and
    regulations came up on energy performance in Europe we felt that
    there was a lot more we could do as a company.
  • We started collecting significant amounts of
    data and measuring our performance. We wanted to achieve the
    highest level of efficiency and make our office and residential
    buildings as healthy as possible for their occupiers. This created
    a positive feedback loop with our investors that saw that our
    outcomes were significantly better.
  • Subsequently, I saw a huge opportunity for
    Hines in ESG given that we were so technically integrated and we
    had such willingness to innovate. 

[8:30] Kathryn: How closely do
yours and Peter’s teams work together?

  • We work extremely closely together, I think ESG
    and innovation will become even closer in the
    future. 
  • We also have a close collaboration with our
    operations and engineering personnel, who are the execution and
    implementation arm of so many of the different strategies and
    innovations.

[10:28] Peter: What is Hines’
plan for our planet?

  • The target for us is for operational energy,
    everything we do around our existing buildings we are looking at
    setting a target for the embodied carbon, which as a developer is a
    huge exposure.
  • The target we’re setting for operational
    emissions in 2040 is without offsets and will be aligned with the
    science based targets initiative. We’re investing in furthering
    energy efficiency in our buildings.
  • The key focus for us is that we’re bringing
    down the actual emissions of our buildings.

[13:54] Kathryn: Are there any
technologies that you are looking at investing in or are currently
piloting?

  • We’re taking a truly customer centric approach
    within the innovation platform to solve some of the challenges
    within ESG.
  • All types of solutions, tools and technologies
    can help support carbon tracking, carbon mitigation and create more
    positive outcomes for our communities and
    buildings. 
  • Hines already has a tremendous playbook and
    history of innovation, but we are managing processes to think about
    more obstacles in innovation that may be on the
    horizon.

[17:53] Peter: What are the
major trends you’ve observed across different geographies within
innovation, digital transformation and ESG?

  • In the Nordics we have seen great expertise in
    the area of heat pumps and renewable energy, they have decided much
    earlier than the rest of the world that they want to stop using
    fossil fuels. They have a very open mindset to innovation which is
    extremely refreshing.
  • We have a new development in Manhattan where we
    are applying the same concepts that people use in Nordic countries
    and the result is an all electric building which not only will
    eventually be net-zero but is comfortable for the
    tenants.
  • If you pick the best expertise from different
    places around the world you will arrive at a product that is better
    for everyone. 

[21:23] Kathryn: What trends
have refocused you to work on the innovation side at
Hines?

  • What we’re seeing across geographies is the
    concept of flexibility and what our tenants are really demanding,
    especially in the post COVID world. One particular venture that I
    can share with you is a software play called Halo. It supports
    broader flexibility options in the office domain as well as what
    the tenants are wanting. 
  • We also have a flexible workspace product
    called the Square which is a hardware that offers more flexible
    types of office spaces.
  • Another trend we are seeing is the concept of
    data, the data coming out of our building systems can help solve
    other pain points for our clients.

L – Touch on
the main 
lessons you have learnt throughout your
career.

Kathryn: There is no single
person in a team. The power and the force of networks and
partnerships is crucial.

M – Please give
a
 mention to anyone / product / service.

Peter – My colleagues who are
running the European Core Fund at Hines are managing to implement
what we want to do across the whole firm in such a consistent and
coherent way. I also want to shout out to the leaders in this
industry who are being very open and collaborative, this mindset is
extremely refreshing.

R – What has
been the most  
rewarding  aspect of working in the innovation side of
real estate?

Kathryn: The evermore converging
of our product types, our industry and the built
environment.

E – What are
you 
excited about in the future of Proptech?

Peter: I’m excited about seeing
how much opportunity there is and how this will work financially,
as this will be the biggest catalyst for making this
happen. 


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