Weekend Interview: Renovate, Retrofit, Refurbish — Deb Cloutier On Sustainability's Evolution In CRE
This Bisnow series goes deep with some of the most compelling figures in commercial real estate: the deal-makers, the game-changers, the city-shapers and the larger-than-life personalities who keep CRE interesting.
RE Tech Advisors founder and President Deb Cloutier has seen the good, the bad and the decarbonization when it comes to sustainability in real estate. She has 31 years of experience in the ever-changing ESG sector and has helped shape the federal government’s response to going green.
In her first role out of college, Cloutier worked on the greening of The White House under the Clinton administration. She also helped to develop a system that provides data on a space's energy consumption and how it can be improved, which evolved into the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program.
Today, Cloutier works closely with Blackstone to make the real estate industry more sustainable. The private equity giant bought RE Tech Advisors in 2020 to serve as the fulfillment platform for Blackstone’s emissions and cost reduction program.
Cloutier is also the chief sustainability officer and leads the acquisitions strategy for Legence, a Blackstone-owned environmental, social and corporate governance real estate consultancy that bills itself as an energy transition accelerator and is involved in greening 1.5B SF. Legence is rapidly acquiring firms to grow and scale its offerings to clients, a strategy Cloutier said it plans to continue next year.
Cloutier spoke to Bisnow about the changes she has seen sustainability take in real estate, where we are now and the factors that will impact CRE moving forward.
Read the full article and interview questions on bisnow.com
