Sustainability LIVE: Net Zero Savills ESG Lead Keynote

Speaking at Sustainability LIVE: Net Zero, Kirsty Rice, ESG Lead (Europe & the Middle East) at Savills delves into the company’s sustainability strategy, reporting and implementations. 

Business Divers and sustainability strategy foundations

Starting her keynote with an outline of the company’s service-orientated business model – including planning, advice, and property management – Kirsty emphasises the cross-cultural and cross-industrial nature of its operations. 

"We are a global real estate business," she said. "We operate in over 700 offices. We have over 40,000 employees and we offer a whole range of services."

Following on from this introduction to the business, Kirsty outlines the three pillars of the sustainability strategy for Savills – climate, culture and community. She also acknowledges the importance of culture and community alongside climate goals and the company’s alignment with sustainability development goals (SDGs) for reporting and operations. 

Strategy implementation and reporting

Setting an ambitious 10-year journey towards net zero, Kirsty highlights some of the phases included in the strategy – data collection, employee education, reporting and development of a net zero plan. 

She also highlights the need for collaboration across geographical regions and functional areas and client engagement to influence real estate sustainability practices.

Describing the company’s current organisational structure to deliver sustainability strategy implementation, she added: "We started from scratch on this, like many of you did, you know, trying to figure out what our data was for energy or waste or water consumption, then translated that into our scope one and two emissions [...] And now we're at the stage where we have a real net zero plan in place across the company."

Action and metrics

Kirsty concludes her keynote with a detailed action plan for the climate, culture and community pillars – such as green leasing, transitioning to electric vehicles, employee training and supplier engagement. As well as this, she discusses the importance of tracking progress. 

"I'm really fortunate that I have a great network within all the countries in my region where we have ESG specialists who are not only responsible for reporting on the corporate side, but they're client-facing as well,” she said.

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