Amid more mandatory disclosure rules being rolled out across Asia, property giant CBRE has acquired Singapore-based firm Paia Consulting in a bid to expand its sustainability team in the region.
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The consultancy’s employees will be subsumed under CBRE’s existing regional environmental, social and governance (ESG) consulting and sustainability services team, which has been led by David Fogarty since he joined the New York Stock Exchange-listed firm in 2022.
“The greater level of awareness and interest in sustainability is rising among businesses, and increasing regulations will provide an impetus for them to build sustainability strategies and to demonstrate progress on their implementation,” said Anshuman Magazine, CBRE’s advisory division president for India, Southeast Asia, Middle East and Africa.
The integration of Paia Consulting’s expertise will position CBRE at “the forefront of ESG advisory in Singapore and across Asia Pacific,” said Moray Armstrong, CBRE’s managing director in Singapore.
”Our professionals will be partnering with clients on reporting, training, compliance, benchmarking, developing and executing ESG plans. CBRE will positively impact the built environment,” Armstrong added.
CBRE did not specify the financial valuation of the deal.
Since being founded in 2002 by environmental consultant Carrie Johnson, Paia Consulting has provided sustainability strategy and reporting services to over 100 Singapore Exchange-listed firms.
Most recently, Paia Consulting was appointed one of six sustainability service providers for lender UOB’s sustainability-linked financing programme targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Johnson will stay on as CBRE’s lead consultant, while Paia Consulting’s managing director Carrado Forcellati, who joined in 2021, has been appointed director of its client sustainability strategy and solutions.
Armstrong told Eco-Business that the combined team, known as Paia FROM CBRE, “will be among the larger business lines in CBRE following the integration.” However, it is unclear how the specific reporting lines will look like under this new arrangement.
The world’s largest commercial real estate firm counts Danish shipping company Maersk and British drugmaker GSK among its clients, and has US$142.5 billion in assets under management.
In June 2022, CBRE acquired French ESG advisory firm Green Soluce SAC to bolster its sustainability consulting capabilities in Europe, ahead of the European Union (EU) adopting the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, a sweeping legislation mandating disclosures for non-EU firms operating in the region as well.
CBRE did not mention if there were plans to further expand its sustainability consulting practice, though Armstrong shared that it is “one of the fastest expanding and most demanding requirement areas that our clients are searching for.”
The booming sustainability consulting market is now estimated to be US$14 billion. The 17 largest players in the space, including big four accounting firms Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PwC, have made at least 76 acquisitions over the last two years, according to London-based research firm Verdantix.
Correction note: An earlier version of the story stated that Paia consulting was founded in 2022. The firm had its beginnings in 2002. We apologise for the error.
