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How To Integrate ESG Into Your Portfolio Effectively. with Eric Duchon & John Fitzpatrick

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Nov 10, 2022

Summary: In the ninth episode of
Season 10 of the Propcast, host Louisa Dickins is joined by

Eric Duchon, Global Head of ESG for Blackstone Real Estate and
John Fitzpatrick
, Chief
Technology Officer of Alternative Asset Management Technology
at
Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset
manager. John featured previously in

Season 2
of The Propcast.

Eric and John share where
Blackstone is on ESG and why they are seen as one of the leaders in
this space. They talk about what Blackstone is focusing on as a
business when it comes down to strategy, investment and innovation
across their diverse and global portfolio.

In this episode you will hear
how Blackstone ensures attractive returns for their investors
whilst making a positive impact on the communities in which they
invest.


Resources:


Companies Mentioned:


Shout Outs:


Key Insights From This Episode:  

 

  • We
    believe that ESG is a real source of value and a way to mitigate
    risk in our portfolio – Eric

 

  • What drove me into this space is the use of
    passion to drive change, whilst driving value – Eric
  • We do need the technologies that help us
    automate and optimise our buildings but this also requires the
    people that know what they’re doing – Eric
  • Technology is important, but having a clear
    strategy is the starting place that people should have if they want
    to achieve their ESG targets – John


About Our Guests:

Eric Duchon:

Eric Duchon is Global Head of
ESG for Blackstone Real Estate. As part of the Real Estate Asset
Management team, he partners with the firm’s central ESG team and
Portfolio Operations to initiate, manage, implement and report ESG
initiatives across the global Real Estate portfolio.

Prior to joining Blackstone in
November 2020, Mr. Duchon was at LaSalle Investment Management
where he was a Managing Director and Global Head of Sustainability.
Prior to LaSalle, Mr. Duchon spent over 9 years at Cushman &
Wakefield as the Director of Sustainability Strategies.

Mr. Duchon received a BBA from
Emory University – Goizueta Business School and a Masters in Real
Estate Development Degree from New York University Schack Institute
of Real Estate.


John Fitzpatrick:

John Fitzpatrick is Chief
Technology Officer of Alternative Asset Management Technology at
Blackstone. He handles all aspects of technology across
Blackstone’s Real Estate and Private Equity businesses and assists
our portfolio companies with managing their technology programs and
strategy. He is also involved in the firm’s balance sheet
investments in targeted, early stage, technology-related
opportunities.

Prior to his current role, Mr.
Fitzpatrick oversaw various initiatives across the entire
Technology and Innovations group. Before joining Blackstone in
2011, Mr. Fitzpatrick worked at Capital IQ, a division of Standard
& Poor’s, for seven years where he was most recently the Head of
Product.

He received a BS in Finance from
St. John’s University and currently serves on the Blackstone
Charitable Foundation’s Leadership Council.


About Blackstone:

Blackstone is the world’s
largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive
economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the
companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do
this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help
companies solve problems. Our $941 billion in assets under
management include investment vehicles focused on private equity,
real estate, public debt and equity, infrastructure, life sciences,
growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real
assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further
information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone
on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.


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:

[2:06] Eric: What is your role
at Blackstone?

  • I lead ESG for Blackstone Real Estate globally,
    this means myself and my team work with all the departments at
    Blackstone to ensure we are implementing our ESG priorities as they
    are aligned with our fiduciary duty to add value to our portfolio
    and deliver great returns to our investors.
  • We are finding ways to continue delivering
    value and ensuring that we are improving the environmental, social
    and governance performance of our companies and our
    assets.

[4:44] John: What are your
responsibilities in your role at Blackstone and how have they
changed?

  • My responsibility is alternative asset
    management technology, this involves everything under our private
    equity and real estate umbrellas, it’s more than half of the AUM at
    Blackstone and really fits within ESG.

[5:35] Eric: What does ESG mean
to Blackstone and how has it changed since you joined in
2020?

  • There were great initiatives happening across
    Blackstone when I joined with regards to ESG however, the firm
    needed a more programmatic approach which is what we have done over
    the last 2 years.
  • We’re focused on 3 main areas; diversity,
    decarbonisation and good governance. This guides everything that
    our ESG teams do and how we continue to integrate this more
    programmatic approach into our portfolio.

[7:40] John: How does your team
assist with the ESG part of Blackstone?

  • If you want to hit targets and goals then you
    need to be able to get the data and track it to see your progress
    over an extended period of time. 
  • It’s our job to collect that data in the most
    streamlined fashion so we can process that content in real time to
    ensure we are driving towards those targets

[9:05] John: Are there any more
climate focused ESG investments across your portfolio that you
could share with us?

  • The data and insights that we have got
    from
    Sphera have helped us improve and learn in this space
    and helped our ESG technical ecosystem.

[9:42] Eric: How do these
investments assist with your portfolios?

  • We worked to develop a framework which sets out
    Blackstone Real Estates ESG priorities across 6 pillars, these set
    the tone for how we engage with the portfolio companies in order
    for them to develop their 3 year strategic ESG
    roadmaps.

[13:31] John: How do you tackle
the technology gaps in businesses across your portfolio?

  • We use our data initiatives to help them
    implore technology and try to make the transition as seamless as
    possible. We can then analyse and track their data and help them
    achieve their targets.
  • We tend to make investments in solutions that
    have a competitive advantage or a unique data set like

    Sphera

[17:11]  Eric: What are the
main barriers when it comes down to reducing carbon across your
portfolios?

  • A couple of years ago the social aspect of ESG
    was focused around  health, wellness and community engagement.
    Today, it is more focused on diversity, equity and
    inclusion.
  • When we look at PropTech solutions for ESG one
    of the main barriers is being able to identify what the strengths
    and weaknesses are. There are some really good processes in place
    but humans are still necessary to ensure the quality data flows
    through.
  • We need to ensure that we have the right people
    that understand the technologies and can drive action from
    it.

[20:45] John: Is there anything
you would like to mention that you have seen in terms of
barriers?

  • Technology is important but having a clear
    strategy is the starting place that people should have if they want
    to achieve their ESG targets.

[23:00] Eric: What is the
balance between automation and optimisation, and reducing carbon
footprint? 

  • We need the technologies that help us automate
    and optimise our buildings but this also requires the people that
    know what they’re doing.

L – Touch on
the main 
lessons you have learnt throughout your career within
this space?

Eric: You need to stay nimble in
everything that you do, different things come at you everyday and
you need to be able to take them in your stride.

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

John: Jonathan Gray, President at Blackstone, he is committed to ESG
and doing it the right way. 

R – What has
been the most  
rewarding  aspect of working in ESG?

Eric: Whether you’re reducing
carbon emissions, whether you’re ensuring that folks from
under-resourced communities are getting better opportunities
working with our portfolio companies. That to me is what drove me
into the space connecting the passion to drive change.

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

John: The innovation that is
coming down the pipe, some of the best and brightest minds are in
this space that are really passionate about this topic so the
landscape in a few years time is going to look vastly
different.


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