National Sustainability & ESG Conference

Sara Neff is a Partner and General Manager of Sustainability for Microsoft's Cloud Operations + Innovation team. Prior to joining Microsoft, she was Head of Sustainability, Lendlease Americas, where she provided leadership and management oversight in developing, implementing and driving Lendlease's corporate sustainability framework in the Americas region. Prior to that role, she served as Senior Vice President, Sustainability at Kilroy Realty Corporation. Under her leadership, Kilroy was recognized as a leader among publicly traded real estate companies on sustainability in the Americas by GRESB for seven of the last eight years as well as being recognized by NAREIT, and achieved carbon neutral operations at the end of 2020. She is a LEED Fellow and holds a BS from Stanford and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Marcelo founded Ecosave in 2002 and has grown it into an industry leading energy and water services company. Marcelo has more than 25 years of experience, including as a business turnaround specialist working for a corporate training multinational. Marcelo’s focus is on sales management, financial, and corporate training and development.

Having been in the world of Sustainability and the Built environment for 15 years, Julia has committed her professional life to designing thoughtfully for the environment and the people our buildings serve. Having earned her Master's degree in urban and environmental planning at Tufts University, Throughout her career, Julia has focused on the areas of design and operational engineering, building management, sustainability planning, and sustainable real estate portfolio performance. Julia has worked on behalf of owners, landlords and design teams to ensure that new and existing buildings and municipalities are designed and operated to enable a more sustainable future. Her previous work includes her position as the Head of Operational Planning at Meta (formerly Facebook), where she strategy and goals to create a healthy and thriving real estate portfolio and before that, she led the sustainable design and energy analysis teams for engineering firms supporting real estate owners, academic institutions, and public entities. Now as the President of CodeGreen, she oversees the teams working on decarbonization, ESG data management and compliance, and sustainable design for international, national, and local clients.

Mr. Flaherty is a Managing Director, Global Head of Sustainability at Tishman Speyer. Flaherty joined Tishman Speyer in 2007 and oversees global sustainability and health strategy as well as global energy management and procurement. In this role, he manages sustainability certifications, investor communications, worldwide performance tracking, procurement strategy and technological innovation implementation. Mr. Flaherty joined Tishman Speyer as part of the Leadership Development Program and has held various roles with the company, including in asset management and portfolio management for New York. Prior to joining the firm, he worked as a legislative aide for Senator Schumer in Washington, DC. Mr. Flaherty is the chair of the board of directors for the Building Energy Exchange and is a team leader for the ACE Mentor Program. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Kenyon College, and a Master of Business Administration and Master of Urban Planning from Columbia University.

I am an investment management executive, with a specialization in private markets and have led transactions in the U.S. Europe and Africa. Over the last 7+ years, I have found ways to use my financial skill set to help others while generating financial returns and have done so in both the private and public sectors. I am currently responsible for leading the Social Impact & Sustainability investment efforts at a ~$20 billion private equity firm, building an investment platform across real estate, private equity and venture capital with the aim of achieving triple bottom line (i.e. ESG) goals. Previously, I built one of the only direct investing platforms within a development finance institution in the country. Utilizing tax incentives, debt, equity, and other innovative financing structures, we showed that government can make socially impactful investments - helping millions of people, while generating attractive returns for the City of New York. We are in an interesting time, where many are thinking about how finance can play a role in addressing global challenges, and I feel privileged to have a voice in that conversation.

Phuong is a Partner at Mazars with 15 years of experience and headed the UK Financial Services practice until October 2022. She is now in charge of coordinating the development of the sustainable finance and climate change service offering for Mazars Group. Phuong has advised financial institutions in the UK and across Europe on the implementation of prudential regulations and risks standards including on climate change and sustainability. She helps clients strengthening their risk management framework, ensuring that all aspects of their business operate in line with their strategy, risk appetite and in compliance with regulators’ expectations. In particular, she supports clients in addressing regulatory requirements and achieving compliance in relation to capital and liquidity adequacy, disclosure and reporting, including formal reporting to supervisory authorities. Phuong also helps clients understanding ESG risks, assessing their exposures, defining their position vis-à-vis those risks, designing policies and starting to implement disclosure processes. In 2020, she contributed to Mazars response to the ECB’s consultation on ‘Guide on climate-related and environmental risk’ and the EBA’s consultation on ‘Management and supervision of ESG risks for credit institutions and investment firms’. Phuong holds a master’s degree in accounting and finance management from Grenoble Ecole de Management and is currently a candidate to the Sustainability Master’s Degree Program of Harvard Extension School.

Dana Robbins Schneider is Senior Vice President, Director of Energy and Sustainability for Empire State Realty Trust. Dana is responsible to define, lead and execute a comprehensive program for all company and property level energy and sustainability initiatives and industry leading best practices and to coordinate and develop the company's ESG and wellness programs and reporting. Dana focuses on analyzing and implementing actionable measures which drive energy efficiency and performance at the whole building, systems and tenant level including proactive planning for LL97 and 80X50. We focus on measurable actionable impacts in energy, water, waste and indoor environmental quality to drive ROI and healthy buildings. Prior to joining ESRT, Dana led JLL’s Energy and Sustainability Projects team for the Americas, working on over 250 million square feet of impact projects over 18 years. Before this, Dana was a mechanical engineer at WSP. Dana graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia in 1999 and serves on the Real Estate Roundtable Sustainable Policy Advisory Committee, Urban Green Board of Directors, REBNY Sustainability Committee, USGBC LEED Steering Committee and is a LEED Fellow.  Dana serves on the LL97 Technical Pathways for Commercial Buildings Working Group.

Morris F. DeFeo, Jr. is a partner and chair of Herrick’s Corporate Department, where he focuses on domestic and international capital markets, corporate finance and M&A transactions, and corporate governance and compliance counseling for boards, committees and directors of public and private companies and not-for-profit entities. Morris advises public and private corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, real estate investment trusts (REITs), private equity firms and funds, venture and hedge funds, private investment funds and other clients in U.S. and cross-border joint ventures and strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, consolidations, asset and stock acquisitions and dispositions, all aspects of private equity and venture capital fund transactions and public and private offerings of debt and equity securities, including initial public offerings and shelf-registered offerings, Rule 144A high-yield debt offerings and exchange listings. Morris provides counsel to fund sponsors and investors on a range of investment activities including fund formation, structuring arrangements, senior and mezzanine debt, distressed investments, syndications, leveraged buyouts, majority and minority stake investments, sales and divestitures as well as exit strategies. He also advises clients on compliance with the registration, proxy solicitation and periodic reporting requirements of the U.S. securities laws, and the complex requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, such as those related to section 404 internal control over financial reporting, disclosure controls and governance. Morris has advised clients, including start-ups and emerging growth companies in the U.S., the Middle East/North Africa, Europe, India and the Far East, which have operated in a range of sectors, including defense, automotive, energy, information technology, manufacturing and telecommunications. Earlier in his career, Morris served as executive vice president of corporate and international transactions for CAIS Internet, a Nasdaq-listed Internet access solutions company. In that capacity, he helped build out CAIS's deployment in Asia, Australia and Europe through merger and acquisition transactions, joint ventures and strategic relationships with foreign telecom, infrastructure, equipment and hospitality companies in 16 countries. From 1990 to 1991, Morris worked as a foreign visiting attorney in the law firm of Yuasa and Hara in Tokyo, Japan.

Ben Myers is the Senior Vice President, Sustainability, at Boston Properties (BXP), the largest publicly-traded developer, owner and manager of Class A office properties in the United States. He is an engineer and non-routine project manager with a passion for resource efficiency, healthy workspaces and urban ecosystems. His primary responsibilities include ESG strategy and implementation, enterprise energy and water management, green building initiatives, distributed generation and storage, energy conservation measure implementation, resilience planning, education, communication and public reporting. He holds an M.A. in Urban Environmental Leadership from Lesley University and a B.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Under Mr. Myers’ leadership, BXP has been recognized as an industry leader in ESG and sustainability. • In 2019, BXP ranked among the top 4% of all real estate companies in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (“GRESB”) assessment. 2019 was the eighth consecutive year that BXP has ranked in the top quartile of GRESB assessment participants, earning another “Green Star” recognition and the highest GRESB 5-star Rating. • In 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019, BXP was selected by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (“Nareit”) as a Leader in the Light Award winner. In 2019, BXP earned the “Most Innovative” Leader in the Light Award. This award is given to only one company and is the highest achievement in sustainability innovation for all REITs and real estate companies. • BXP is a corporate member of the U.S. Green Building Council® (USGBC) and has a long history of owning, developing and operating properties that are certified under USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental DesignTM (LEED®) rating system. The company has LEED certified over 26 million square feet of our portfolio, of which 93% is certified at the highest Gold and Platinum levels. • BXP has been an active participant in the green bond market since 2018, issuing $1.85 billion of green bonds, which provide access to sustainability-focused investors interested in the positive environmental externalities of our business activities. • BXP has been named a Green Lease Leader at the highest Gold level by the Institute for Market Transformation and the U.S. Department of Energy for exhibiting a strong commitment to high performance and sustainability in buildings and best practices in leasing. BXP’s master lease form includes green lease clauses that support a more sustainable tenant-landlord relationship. • Since adopting public goals in 2016, the company has made great strides towards meeting its targets to reduce energy use intensity by 32%, reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 45% and reduce water use intensity by 30% by the year 2025. The company achieved its 45% greenhouse gas emissions intensity goal six years early in 2019 and advanced our commitment to responsible climate action measures by pursuing the adoption of a science-based greenhouse gas emissions reduction target. • As a result of BXP’s efforts to improve energy efficiency and cut emissions, the company was named a 2020 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year. • BXP was named one of America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek. The company ranked 122nd on Newsweek’s 2020 list of America’s 300 Most Responsible Companies, the second highest ranking given to a public REIT and the highest ranking of any office company.

Adam Shelly is Project Development Director with Ecosystem, based in New York City. He works at the intersection of sustainability and technical innovation, bringing together energy expertise and knowledge of the NYC energy landscape to identify potential infrastructure modernization that addresses both asset renewal priorities and carbon reduction mandates. He also serves as a key member of NYSERDA's Technical Advisory team for the Empire Building Challenge, which provides $50 million to a group of leading building owners to test innovative new green retrofit solutions. Adam is a P.E. in several states, a C.E.M. and a licensed electrical contractor. He has an MS in Sustainable Engineering from Villanova University, and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.

Stefan Knust AIA, LEED AP, WELL AP, CPHC is the Director of Sustainability at Ennead Architects. He brings over 25 years of experience as a project architect and sustainability expert to the design and construction of complex institutional projects that serve their community and strive for high performance. Incorporating design strategies that are inherently responsive to the site, context, and climate, he works to develop integrated architectural solutions that create healthy environments, conserve resources, and restore natural ecosystems. He is a steering committee member of the New York City Chapter of the AIA Committee on the Environment,chairs an ASTM Committee developing a standard for testing bird collision deterrent materials, and is aCertified Passive House Consultant.

Brian Geller is a Sustainability Manager at The Durst Organization, where he is responsible for overseeing sustainability on both large construction projects and existing buildings. Brian is also heavily involved in benchmarking and tracking building performance data for The Durst Organization’s commercial and residential portfolio. Prior to joining The Durst Organization, Brian was Senior Vice President of Corporate Sustainability at Citigroup, where he was the team lead for sustainable cities. Prior to joining Citi, Brian was the Founder and Executive Director of The Seattle 2030 District, a public-private partnership to reduce the environmental impact of buildings in Downtown Seattle. This model has since been copied in 20 cities across North America and includes over 500 million square feet of committed buildings. Brian received a Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Skidmore College.

Mike Eardley is Director of Energy & Sustainability at EBI Consulting, managing EBI’s nationwide engineering team. He has 20 years of experience in energy consulting, building commissioning, and high performance facilities. His contributions to the industry have included serving as President of the Northeast Chapter of the Building Commissioning Association, President of the Building Commissioning Certification Board, Board Officer of the U.S. Green Building Council’s New Hampshire Chapter, and Program’s Chair for a national technical committee of ASHRAE. Aside from work, Mike enjoys the challenges of coaching the baseball and football teams for his two sons.

Nina is a Senior Manager in the Real Estate Investment team at Norges Bank Investment Management. Norges manages approximately $55 billion in real estate investments across listed REITs and direct investments in office, retail and logistics on behalf of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund. Nina’s primary responsibilities includes the development and implementation of the fund’s ESG strategy across its global real estate portfolio. Since joining Norges Bank in 2013, Nina has been actively involved in building the global real estate business.

Craig is the Co-Founder and CEO of Empowered Buildings, a technology company specializing in building automation systems, energy management, and smart building solutions. Craig has over 20 years of experience in energy, software, and data analytics. He is considered a leading expert in the field of building automation and energy efficiency. Craig founded Empowered Buildings in 2020 with the goal of leveraging data and technology to help owners and operators optimize their building’s performance and reduce energy consumption. Under his leadership, the company has grown rapidly and has worked with a wide range of clients across the real estate market, including affordable and multi-family housing, commercial, industrial, hospitality, healthcare, and educational. Craig holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and currently resides in New York City with his wife and two children.

Partner and Co-director of AKF's Energy+Performance group, Charlie is a national leader in energy optimization. Whether performing portfolio-wide energy analyses for major corporate campuses or enabling universities to achieve their sustainability goals, Charlie solves challenges today to build a more sustainable future. Charlie was the commercial sector chair for the NYC Mayor’s Office of Sustainability 80x50 Technical Working Group, and more recently a participant in Urban Green Council’s 80x50 Buildings Partnership to provide guidance and commentary to City Council as they refined Local Law 97. Currently, Charlie serves on the Boards of both ASHRAE NY and Building Energy Exchange to help foster communication between sustainability professionals and the consultant engineering community.

As CEO and Co-Founder of HIGHMARK | Building Efficiency, Richard Gerbe is a 2017 ENR New York Top Young Professional and a 2016 Consulting-Specifying Engineer 40 Under 40 Award Winner. Gerbe is a visionary and seasoned HVAC authority with nearly two decades of industry experience. His robust expertise in the best and most innovative products, technologies and processes available today for boosting building efficiency is unparalleled. He's committed to challenging the HVAC industry’s status quo and imparting a new mentality centered on greater efficiency in the built environment. Prior to co-founding HIGHMARK, Gerbe worked as both a consulting and sales engineer at Trane for almost a decade. Additionally, he held several other top-level positions at leading engineering and consulting companies in the HVAC industry. He received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the New York Institute of Technology.

Raymond “Rusty” Pomeroy is an environmental lawyer with a broad, multifaceted skill set developed in private practice and as an in-house counsel for the commercial real estate investment division of a U.S.-based multinational conglomerate. Rusty has an extensive track record helping clients identify, understand and mitigate environmental risks in complex commercial real estate transactions, financing and commodities transactions, and corporate mergers and acquisitions in a pragmatic and commercial way. His practice includes advising clients on green and sustainable energy issues, climate change, and the implications and opportunities stemming from New York City’s Climate Mobilization Act, among other laws. Rusty has counseled clients regarding site cleanups and brownfields projects in multiple jurisdictions across the U.S., including New York’s Brownfields Cleanup Program, New York City’s Voluntary Cleanup Program and New Jersey’s Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA). Rusty has also litigated CERCLA and state-based cost recovery actions, toxic tort claims and challenges to legislative actions and environmental review projects; assisted corporate clients with the development and implementation of environmental policies and procedures; counseled manufacturing clients regarding their obligations under various regulatory regimes, including RCRA, and the self-disclosure of environmental audit findings; addressed tenant and employee health and safety issues; negotiated, placed and reviewed environmental insurance policies; and represented clients in administrative proceedings before government regulators. Rusty was previously the chief elected official in Sullivan County, New York, serving as chairman of the Sullivan County Legislature.