Our Movers and Shakers series is spotlighting Aotearoa's leading sustainability professionals transforming the way we design, build and operate our buildings and homes. These are the people leading the charge for a more sustainable built environment throughout Aotearoa.
Sarah Beale
Sarah Beale is the Head of Sustainability and Operations at PFI. PFI is an NZX-listed property vehicle focused on the industrial sector. She leads several areas of the business including sustainability, risk management, compliance, and facilities management.
What were your early career intentions and what led you to study Management Studies?
I was always interested in finance and business, and when I started university was considering a career in accounting.
What piqued your interest in sustainability?
There have been a lot of factors that drew me to sustainability. For example, when I was growing up, we used to go hiking, which gave me an appreciation of the natural environment and a desire to protect it. As I got older and started to travel, I became increasingly aware of waste and pollution, particularly when visiting big cities, and began to wonder if I could have a career where I could try to mitigate some of these issues.
What sustainability-related global trends and drivers are you seeing in the industrial building and leasing space?
It has been positive to see increased acceptance and understanding that sustainability forms an important part of doing business. Over the past four years since I started working in sustainability, there has been a noticeable shift in the quality of conversations and the level of focus that sustainability is being given by many of the organisations that we work with. However, there is still a lot of variation in awareness between businesses.
Internationally, sustainability regulations (such as reporting requirements) and other government initiatives are being introduced, which is flowing through to some industrial tenants, particularly those with international operations, or that supply companies operating in jurisdictions such as Europe. Some large global corporates have also voluntarily made bold commitments to reducing their impacts, including along their supply chains. These trends should continue to drive increased demand for sustainable industrial buildings, which is an exciting opportunity for landlords such as PFI.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities we face to provide sustainable buildings for New Zealand businesses?
In terms of opportunities, aside from the obvious benefits of lowering the impacts of buildings on the environment, I see sustainability as a way for landlords to deepen our relationships with our tenants. As sustainability becomes a key focus for businesses, we are able to use our expertise to support them, which benefits both us and our tenants.
Sadly, there are a lot of challenges to providing sustainable buildings in New Zealand, including higher upfront costs (albeit sustainable buildings should have lower operational costs due to the lower electricity and water use), availability of expertise, and availability of more sustainable building materials.
What improvements do you hope to see in sustainable building as we look to the future?
I really hope to see an acceleration in the availability of lower-carbon building materials such as concrete and steel. There have been some steps made already to introduce new products, and lots of exciting research and development is going on, but it is an area where there is still a lot of work to do.
It would also be great to see more wide-spread focus on improving building performance. Particularly in the industrial space, there is a very small group of landlords focussing on this, and support may be needed to help less sophisticated property investors understand how to do this, as it is a complicated area.
Do you have a favourite green building
I acknowledge this is a biased response, but we have recently received PFI’s first 5 Green Star design certification for an industrial building – a new high-stud warehouse and interconnected office facility at Bowden Road in Mount Wellington. This was a huge milestone for us, and was the result of a massive effort across our team and business partners. It has been really fulfilling to see a building developed that has had a lower upfront impact on the environment, will perform better during its operation, and provides a better environment for our tenant to enjoy.