Board Directors

  • Janine Cole, BBP Chair

    Head of Sustainability, Great Portland Estates plc

    Janine Cole is the Chair of the Better Buildings Partnership and Head of Sustainability for Great Portland Estates plc, a FTSE 250 Real Estate Investment Trust specialising in development and investment of property in Central London.  She leads on the development and implementation of sustainability strategy and reporting on ESG matters across the business.  A key responsibility is to integrate sustainability, wellbeing and community related matters into all aspects of the design, construction and operation of our buildings. As part of her role, Janine is also responsible for the Charities and Community Strategy and for ensuring it’s effective implementation.

  • Dan Grandage

    Head of ESG, Real Estate, Aberdeen Standards Investments

    Dan Grandage is Head of Responsible Property Investment at Aberdeen Asset Management. Dan supports Aberdeen’s £20bn global property investment division to manage property obsolescence and improve the environmental efficiency of Aberdeen managed properties, with the ultimate aim of future-proofing the investment funds. Dan also chair’s Aberdeen’s corporate environment committee having responsibility for the environmental performance of Aberdeen’s global office network. 

    Dan represents Aberdeen Asset Management on a number of external committees including the UK Better Buildings Partnership, the BCSC, IIGCC, BPF, INREV property working groups and the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) benchmark committee. Dan has over 18 years environmental and energy management experience gained with energy and environmental consultancy RPS Consultants and engineering and design consultancy WSP Group.

    Dan has an MSc from Manchester University and a BSc in environmental geology from Sheffield University.

  • Nina Reid

    Director, Responsible Property Investment, M&G Real Estate

    Nina has overseen responsible investment within M&G Real Estate for over 9 years, driving its ambitious Responsible Property Investment (RPI) strategy, which seeks to enrich the lives of people and communities by creating and managing world class places which deliver positive value for its investors, society and the environment. Nina and her team work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure that M&G Real Estate’s product range is well placed to drive progress, identify opportunities whilst minimising risk associated with obsolescence and depreciation. She also oversees investor reporting on RPI initiatives, engaging directly with investors to ensure that funds are meeting their sustainability requirements.

    With over 15 years experience in responsible investment and real estate, prior to joining M&G Real Estate in 2011, Nina was an associate director within the Upstream Sustainability Services Team at Jones Lang LaSalle. She has an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and is Practitioner Member of the Institute for Environmental Management & Assessment (PIEMA).

  • Neil Pennell

    Head of Design, Innovation and Property Solutions, Landsec

    Neil Pennell is the Head of Engineering and Design for Landsec, the UK’s largest quoted property company. He leads an in-house specialist team responsible for the management of design, procurement and delivery of building service installations and infrastructure for all the Group’s major new development projects.

    Neil chairs an internal Environment Panel with responsibility at corporate level to ensure the Company’s environmental targets are met as part of Landsec’s long-term commitment to sustainable development.

    Neil is the Chairman of the Technical Committee of the British Council of Offices and has contributed to a number of their technical publications. He is a keen advocate of the application of new energy technologies and energy efficient systems in commercial and residential development and is a member of the London Hydrogen Partnership. Neil is also the chairman of the BBP Building Operations & Technology Working Group.

  • Abigail Dean

    Head of Sustainability, Real Estate, Nuveen Real Estate

    Abigail oversees the sustainability strategy, which positions Nuveen Real Estate as a global leader on environmental, social and governance issues, and ensures the business is well placed to pursue growth opportunities, whilst minimising the risk of accelerated depreciation and early obsolescence within Nuveen Real Estate’s portfolio of assets.  She joined the firm in 2016. 

    Abigail previously worked at JLL, where she led on sustainability for the property and asset management business, embedding it into core processes and deliverables. Particular achievements include the successful integration of sustainability into procurement and supply chain management, the roll out of a rigorous ISO14001 certified Environmental Management System and the standardisation of deliverables to clients. She began working in the real estate indsutry in 2008. 

    Abigail gradudated with a B.A., with honours, in English Literature from The University of Sheffield. She is an active member of the Better Buildings Partnership and sits on a number of their working groups. She has also contributed to the Word Green Building Council’s Better Places for People campaign, by taking part in the Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Retail working group.

  • Quinten Babcock

    Environmental Manager, Facilities Operations, Estates Management, TfL

    Quinten Babcock is the Environmental Manager for Transport for London’s Estates Management Directorate. As one of the founders of the BBP, TfL is committed to the principles of the BBP and working in partnership with both the public and private sectors to reduce carbon emissions and drive best practice.

    Quinten joined Transport for London in 2006, and works in the Head Office Facilities Operations department’s Infrastructure & Sustainability team, providing leadership in energy & water management, building services infrastructure asset maintenance and waste & recycling.

    Quinten chairs the BBP’s Sustainability Benchmarking Working Group, responsible for our Real Estate Environmental Benchmark outputs for industry. He also sits on CIBSE’s Energy Performance Group committee and is dedicated to improving the benchmarks available for the industry to improve both design and in use energy performance.

    Quinten has a first class honours degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from Leeds University, and began his building services engineering career at Oscar Faber Engineering consultants (now AECOM) in 1999. He spent 5 years working within their Applied Research department working on updates to Building Regulations as well as standard project designs through the use of dynamic thermal modelling simulations, so is well placed to provide advice at both the design and in use stages of a building’s lifecycle.

  • Jane Wakiwaka

    Head of Sustainability - Real Estate, The Crown Estate

    Jane Wakiwaka is Head of Sustainability – Real Estate at The Crown Estate, and joined the business in 2014.  She is responsible for setting out and embedding The Crown Estate’s sustainability agenda and Net Zero Carbon Commitment across the business including the development, management and investment of its real estate portfolio. Jane is also the main sustainability contact and representative for investors and oversees all sustainability reporting .She is an active member of the BBP and represents The Crown Estate on a number of external committees including the BCO, REVO, BPF, UKGBC and is the current chair of the European Benchmark Committee for GRESB.

    Jane has over 10 years experience in sustainability, energy and EIA, having worked in consultancy most recently at ENVIRON (now Ramboll). She holds Masters degrees in Climate Change Management from Birkbeck University and Urbanisation & Development from LSE

  • Sonal Jain

    Sonal Jain, Head of Sustainability, Workspace

    Sonal Jain is the Head of Sustainability at Workspace, a FTSE250 Real Estate Investment Trust specialising in flexible office space in London. Sonal is responsible for ensuring the business delivers significant positive environmental and social impact, alongside shareholder returns. Sonal oversees the creation, implementation and monitoring of sustainability strategy, along with stakeholder engagement and communication on sustainability matters. As the Chair of the ESG committee, Sonal also operates Workspace’s ESG governance structure, ensuring there is leadership oversight and accountability on sustainability matters.

    Sonal has over 18 years of experience in sustainability and has worked globally in various roles across the built environment value chain. Prior to joining Workspace, she led the climate change and net zero programme at JLL and was also appointed as a senior advisor to COP26 climate champions built environment team. Sonal holds a Masters degree in Environmental Economics from LSE and in Energy Performance and Buildings from Arizona State University.  

  • Shuen Chan

    Head of ESG, Real Assets, Legal & General Investment Management

    Shuen is Head of ESG, Real Assets at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) and is responsible for LGIM’s responsible investment strategy and integration across the portfolio covering real estate equity, infrastructure equity and private debt.  Shuen has been working for over a decade in the intersection of sustainable finance, climate change and impact investing, following a successful career in asset management and capital markets. 

    She was previously co-founder of a purpose driven ESG advisory firm that helped institutional investors to build the case for sustainable investments and the transition to a low carbon economy. Prior to that, she established a climate investment firm focused on nature-based solutions.  Shuen was previously a founding team member of one of the fastest growing credit asset management firms in Europe, European Credit Management, where she was Head of Structured Product Origination.  Shuen’s early career started in debt capital markets teams at Deutsche Bank, Macquarie and HSBC across Asia and Europe.

    Shuen serves on the CFA ESG Advisory panel and is also a co-author of the ESG certification learning materials. She is also an independent trustee of The Lightbulb Trust, a charitable foundation that supports social inclusion, equality and education through grant giving and impact investing. Shuen has a degree in Economics and an MBA from Imperial College and has been a guest tutor on climate change at Oxford University Saïd Business School on their Executive Impact Investing programme.

  • James Manning

    Senior Transformation Manager, Sustainability and Innovation, Grosvenor

    James is a Senior Transformation Manager in Sustainability and Innovation at Grosvenor. As one of the founders of the BBP, Grosvenor is committed to helping redefine climate action within the built environment alongside supporting social and environmental impact within the communities and places that they operate. 

    James is responsible for helping deliver the cultural change needed to embed sustainability across Grosvenor’s UK property business whilst activating an innovative culture that supports the business in becoming more progressive and agile. He leads on the tenant engagement for sustainability working with commercial occupiers and residents to help transform their own organisations and lives to create a more sustainable future for the historic neighbourhoods of Mayfair and Belgravia. He also led the development of Grosvenor’s net zero carbon pathway, ThinkZero, and supports the delivery of a range of key strategic projects including Grosvenor’s offset and innovation strategies.

    James graduated with First Class honours degree from University of Oxford with a B.A. in Geography and also holds a Masters in Environmental Archaeology and a postgraduate certificate in Sustainable Business from University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He is an active member of the BBP and is involved in a range of working groups including the climate commitment, net zero carbon and climate resilience working groups as well as the owner-occupier forum. He comes from a non-traditional property or sustainability background having started his career in management consulting delivering complex cultural change programmes and transformations across a range of sectors.