From Awareness to Impact: Insights from a 300+ person ESG Training Programme

At UKGBC Bespoke Learning, we run all kinds of training sessions for different organisations. While we're there to support others on their sustainability journey, we often find ourselves learning just as much in return. Working closely with people across different sectors gives us fresh insight into what it really takes to put sustainability into practice.
Hollis Bespoke Learning

At UKGBC Bespoke Learning, we run all kinds of training sessions for different organisations. While we’re there to support others on their sustainability journey, we often find ourselves learning just as much in return. Working closely with people across different sectors gives us fresh insight into what it really takes to put sustainability into practice.

We’ve just wrapped up a jam-packed series of ESG training sessions with the team at Hollis, and it’s left me with a few reflections I wanted to share.

Because facts and figures alone aren’t going to change the world.

Hollis is a real estate consultancy that genuinely puts sustainability at the heart of what they do. You don’t put over 300 people through an ESG course unless you’re serious about it, and Hollis clearly is. It’s a big investment and a clear signal that they see their people as central to driving change.

As ever at UKGBC, we dived deep into the technical information and industry trends while connecting with our personal drivers and championing human relationships. Because facts and figures alone aren’t going to change the world.

Here’s a few thoughts that resonated with me

  • Ideas move quickly when the right people are in the room. Coming from a background in exhibitions and large cross-industry events, I’m used to sharing big ideas, but I rarely get to see the impact of those ‘lightbulb’ moments. Seeing people from the same organisation spark ideas and set up ‘next steps’ in front of me was refreshing.
  • There’s freedom in exploring bold, even risky, ideas. We posed several bold “What if…?” questions. Maybe it was liberating being able to entertain radical concepts without needing to act on them, because the responses where always super interesting. I think it helped to stretch people’s thinking without tension.
  • We need more time to imagine. In a world of deadlines and endless to-do lists, making space to think and be curious can feel like a luxury, but it is essential. It was clear most of us spend more time with our heads down, delivering and actioning rather than imagining.

– On a personal note, one small way I deal with this (but far less often than I’d like ) is to carry a small kids magnifying glass around me. Nothing beats pausing on a cold morning to study frost on leaves, it brings me clarity and helps cut through the noise.

 

Hollis Bespoke Learning

Here’s a few takeaways we could all use to improve our ESG and Business Strategy

Client relationships matter.

No big surprises here, but knowing your clients, their drivers, their ambitions is key to giving the very best ESG advice.

Go beyond ‘Yes’, understand ‘Why’.

Putting ESG into meaningful action on an asset level means understanding the client and the asset. What are the fund requirements? Why are they aiming for a specific certification? What is the ambition and why? What might really future proof this site?.

Going beyond regulation is a smart business move.

Thinking beyond today’s regulation, what will this asset look like in 15 years’ time? Using CRREM analysis, when might it become stranded? Even if your client has no plans to hold the asset long-term, it is a far more valuable proposition if it holds value and mitigates risk.

Never stop learning.

It builds confidence and allows conversations to flow. We don’t all need to be experts, we can always bring in heavy-duty expertise. Learn about clients, assets and the science. It helps give you influence and makes life far more interesting.

Taking a Moment to Say Thank You

I’m hugely grateful to Alex Pearson, an incredible academic and business leader, who was our lead facilitator throughout the training. She brought a deep insight into business and sustainability leadership. She expertly balanced personal insight alongside corporate knowledge and took us all on a journey of discovery.

We also had the privilege of learning from Jon Lovell at Hillbreak. Thanks to Jon we were able to stay close to the very latest ESG trends and gained an understanding of the global sustainability story – in terms of financing, changing funds, regulation and industry forecasting.

Alex Benstead and Gesine Kippenberg brought the UKGBC technical expertise to the table. Their insight into how COP agreements filter from top-down strategy and bottom-up action was fascinating. I particularly appreciated hearing about the UK’s often overlooked success story on Net Zero. Thanks largely to the decarbonisation of the electricity grid, the UK is actually on track to meet its Net Zero targets. That said, our industry still has a long way to go.

Hollis Bespoke Learning

Thanks to the entire Hollis team too, they are a big organisation that I knew little about a year ago, and I have learnt so much from them about putting sustainability into real action on the ground. Perhaps in part because they are employee-owned, but they genuinely seem to care and have a good balance between the moral imperative and insight into the business opportunity. Shout out to CEO Andy Hay and Chief People Officer Melanie Olrik for instigating the programme, Louise Woolfenden and Emma Watson for delivering the programme and their ESG home team Katherine Beisler and Deepika Singhal for helping connect the big-picture ambition with on-the-ground expertise and insight.

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