Europa Capital, the pan-European real estate investment manager, announces the promotion of Lynn Smith to the newly created role of Head of Sustainability & Development, formalising the business’s approach and commitment to ESG and ahead of a number of new environmental and social initiatives.
Based in London, Lynn will be responsible for creating a holistic and comprehensive approach that ties together and builds on Europa Capital’s existing ESG achievements.
As part of the role, Lynn will also focus on maintaining and improving the GRESB performance of its funds and growing the business’s capabilities as an asset manager of choice for green investment solutions.
In addition to environmental initiatives, Lynn will seek to expand Europa Capital’s existing activities and partnerships which promote social mobility. This will include Europa Capital’s existing venture with Uptree, an outreach organisation promoting career opportunities, particularly apprenticeship programmes and educational pathways, across a wide range of industries, including real estate, as well as with Sheffield Hallam University, where Europa Capital has funded 30 scholarships and bursaries since 2019 for students with little or no access to financial support.
Lynn will continue to oversee all of Europa Capital’s UK and European developments, ensuring that sustainable practices are both integral and prioritised across its entire pipeline of office, retail, residential and industrial projects. This includes a new build project at Cristobal de Moura, Barcelona which is market leading with LEED, WELL and Wiredscore Platinum certifications with heating/cooling from the local district heating network completing in September 2022 and is Europa Capital’s first Net Zero Carbon project in Barcelona.
Rob Sim, Managing Partner at Europa Capital, commented: “ESG is an extremely important component of our business and has been for some time, and we are committed to improving our approach, ensuring that we have an ambitious and holistic programme which is both challenging and permeates across all of our activities. As Head of Sustainability & Development, Lynn will be expanding her role and leading our path to Net Zero, whilst improving our social impact, building on our existing partnerships with Uptree and Sheffield Hallam University, of which I am particularly proud.”
Lynn Smith, Head of Sustainability and Development at Europa Capital, added: “Having spent more than a year at Europa Capital, I have seen first-hand the excellent achievements, which have already been made in the ESG space, including the ‘greening’ of brown buildings as part of our value add refurbishments, and the development of high quality new space where we have limited the impact to the environment by installing photovoltaics, district heating and ground source heat pumps. There is still work to be done and I look forward to announcing further activities over the coming months.”
