We are delighted to welcome both BlackRock and Helical to the BBP. Their joining brings the membership up to 44 property owners who collectively have over £270bn of real estate assets under management (AUM)  

BlackRock Real Estate is the dedicated real estate investment group within BlackRock Real Assets and the wider BlackRock Alternative Investors platform. With over US$28 billion in AUM, BlackRock Real Estate invests in global strategies for their clients across the risk-return spectrum and provides access to all major real estate types. BlackRock has made sustainability their standard for investing and has put ESG integration at the centre of its investment processes and asset management activities. Examples of recent initiatives include its public commitment to support the goal to be Net Zero Carbon by 2050 or sooner, and their ongoing contribution to leading sustainability benchmarks and reporting standards, including GRESB, UN PRI and TCFD. 

Helical is a property investment and development company with a London focused portfolio of primarily multi-let office buildings with core holdings in the tech belt area. Helical is listed on the London Stock Exchange and at 31 March 2021 has c £850m of assets amounting to 825,723 sqft of real estate.  Helical aim to deliver market-leading returns by developing sustainable, design led properties, incorporating state of the art technologies with occupier health and wellbeing at their core. In June 2020, they launched their sustainability strategy “Built for the Future”. This strategy sets out the Company’s long-term vision encompassing “Our Environment, Our Communities and Our People” and supports the business in becoming truly sustainable. Find out more about it here. 

Sarah Ratcliffe, CEO, Better Buildings Partnership said: “We are very happy to welcome these two contrasting members to the BBP. Our growing membership demonstrates the increasing strategic significance that property owners are placing on ESG and sustainability issues and the urgent need to collaborate and drive collective action. We are very much looking forward to learning from Blackrock and Helical and engaging them in the BBP’s programme of work.”        

Katherine Sherwin, Global Head of BlackRock Real Assets Sustainable Investing, BlackRock said: “We are delighted to be joining the Better Buildings Partnership and to contribute to the strong community of thought leaders in progressing sustainability performance across the property sector. As a major investor in global real estate, we also look forward to sharing and engaging with our peers on how we can continue to enhance our own sustainable investing commitments and best practice.” 

Matthew Bonning-Snook, Chair of Sustainability Committee, Helical said: “We are delighted to be joining the BBP and the opportunity to collaborate with other members. We have worked hard at Helical to ensure that sustainability is integrated within all our business activities and the release of our sustainability strategy has given us focus in achieving our ESG ambitions. In joining the BBP we hope to work towards a common goal of ensuring the property sector is future proofed and sustainable, we believe being part of a collective voice is key in creating a positive change in our industry.”