Month: March 2024

CBRE

Technology forms the fabric of everything humans interact with, including their built environment.

At the Property Council of Australia’s first Technology Summit in Sydney, CBRE’s Phil Rowland underscored the importance of harnessing the potential of technology to shape the diversity of our future surroundings.

“It’s important that we make our industry more productive, our places and precincts more relevant and inclusive to our tenants and the public. This involves making our buildings more intelligent, softening the footprint on our environment and developing the capabilities that we’ll need in the future to thrive in a technological society.”

Today’s technology is already being used to reach some of the boldest ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) targets today by proactive building operators.

It’s a scenario in which Julian Kezelman, Innovation Director at Taronga Ventures, and Su-Fern Tan, Pacific Head of ESG at CBRE, understand the true potential of. During their Technology Summit keynote, the duo explained how technology was being used to maximise the ESG impacts on the built environment.

Technology’s role in ESG strategy

As the case for reaching net zero takes precedence across the commercial property sector, there’s been increasing demand for ESG solutions amongst clients, investors and tenants.

“We help them understand what that strategy looks like and then develop the roadmap to get there,” says Tan.

“Take property management for example. I can spend time in front of a BMS trying to diagnose a building and how we can run it more efficiently, but how scalable is that?

“With technology, I can analyse 200 buildings in a day, so it’s about trying to scale that impact. I think the role that technology plays when it comes to delivering sustainability is about scale, data and integration.”

The current client demographic for supporters of ESG and technology is diverse, ranging from the tech savvy through to those who are completely foreign to the concept. Their priorities commonly revolve around energy, water and waste efficiencies.

“Energy efficiency is essentially the old sustainability game that’s becoming more mature. We’re now starting to talk about water efficiency, waste, embodied carbon, and nature repair. It’s all interconnected, interdependent and getting pretty complicated, and underneath all of this lies the data.”

Read more on the CBRE website

As originally published by GoDaddy’s Venture Forward Research Initiative

The first of its kind Microbusiness Summit took place on Saturday, February 24, 2024, at Las Vegas City Hall.

GoDaddy Venture Forward research, an initiative launched in 2018 that quantifies the impact 20+ million online microbusinesses have on their local economies, identified Las Vegas as having the second-highest number of microbusinesses in the country after New York City and three times the national average. 

Inspired by the massive presence and growth of businesses with fewer than 10 employees (known as microbusinesses) found in Southern Nevada, GoDaddy, the City of Las Vegas, Workforce Connections and Bank of Nevada collaborated to design an impactful agenda based on the top three challenges facing Las Vegas entrepreneurs according to local Venture Forward surveys.

Featured speakers included GoDaddy President of U.S. Independents, Gourav Pani; GoDaddy Sr. Director of Marketing, Amy Jennette, who presented a cutting-edge GoDaddy Airo™ demonstration; multiple Las Vegas city council members; a Nevada state senator; experts in finance and business licensing; and several local entrepreneurs. The event was hosted by motivational speaker Desirae King.

GoDaddy Venture Forward’s mission is to leverage data to better understand entrepreneurs and their impact, thereby enabling greater support for them.

Learn more about the event from GoDaddy President of U.S. Independents Gourav Pani in a podcast hosted by Workforce Connections.

About GoDaddy Venture Forward

GoDaddy’s Venture Forward research initiative analyzes more than 20 million online businesses with a digital presence (measured by a unique domain and an active website). Most of these businesses employ fewer than ten people, categorizing each as a microbusiness. While these microbusinesses may be small, their impact on economies is outsized even though they are often too informal or too new to show up in traditional government statistics. 

Since 2018, Venture Forward surveyed more than 36,000 small business owners with a digital presence, making it the source for microbusiness data and insights.

In honor of Women’s History Month, Rayonier hosted a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) Table Talk featuring several talented women in leadership roles at the company. The panel included April Tice, incoming Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Shelby Pyatt, Senior Vice President of Human Resources and IT; Maha Din, Vice President of Tax; and was moderated by Director of HR and Employee Experience, Liz Estera.

During the informal discussion, each leader shared about their unique career journey and provided commentary on the challenges and successes women experience in corporate America.

The importance of mentorship was one topic that all agreed had made an impact on their careers. Rayonier recently launched a formal mentorship program for employees, and April also encouraged those seeking mentorship to reach out to their colleagues directly for career guidance.

Adversity in the workplace was also a topic of conversation, with the leaders sharing personal stories of what led them to new skill growth. “Leaning into discomfort is going to let you grow,” Shelby said. “You’re going to learn so much when you step out of your comfort zone.”

Rayonier’s DEI Table Talks, spearheaded by Cal Jackson, Rayonier’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, are a series of internal education events designed to inform and encourage conversation among Rayonier employees.