Rekha Toora appointed Chair of new Capital Markets Committee.
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated has partnered with the Energy and Environment Alliance (EEA) – an international not-for-profit coalition driving the reduction of carbon emissions across the hospitality industry – to lead its new Capital Markets Committee through the chair of Rekha Toora, JLL’s Senior Vice President of Hotels Capital Markets (EMEA).
The EEA Capital Markets Committee will bring together hospitality industry leaders from around the world to promote informed discussion and action on how the sector is addressing ESG, from an investment and asset management perspective.
Rekha Toora, JLL’s Senior Vice President of Hotels Capital Markets (EMEA), explained: “The ever-changing regulatory landscape presents challenges to the sector in meeting net zero carbon goals. Investors and funds need a robust set of consistent international standards against which they can demonstrate their ESG credentials, as well as a sound platform for informed discussions and knowledge sharing to promote sustainable investment in hotels.
“The hotel is still nascent in its sustainability journey compared to some other sectors but this needs to and has started to change. We need a clear and transparent investment process and reporting standards for the industry.”
The work of the Capital Markets Committee will include:
- bringing together industry leader to share knowledge on how the hospitality sector is addressing ESG, from an investment and asset management perspective and across different pools of capital;
- promoting the growth of sustainable investment and financing into the hospitality sector;
- developing standardised investment KPIs which help promote benchmarking using common metrics;
- facilitating the change of investment committee processes to accommodate the evolving regulatory and investment landscape;
- collecting data to assess the impact on operational performance of assets which have introduced sustainability measures;
- understanding and promoting standards to assess the valuation impact of Net Zero initiatives;
- monitoring the changing regulatory landscape and how this is impacting investment appetite.
Ufi Ibrahim, CEO and Founder of the EEA, continued: “JLL has already shown itself to be a forerunner in ensuring ESG criteria are incorporated into the valuation of assets, so Rekha was our immediate and natural choice for Capital Markets Chair.
“Her proven passion for the subject, together with her personal gravitas and connections within the hotel industry, will really help to move the work of the Alliance forward and encourage more high calibre industry professionals to get involved.”
JLL has a proven record in setting industry standards for carbon reporting, including ULI Greenprint, GRESB, ESPR and GRI.
JLL’s own journey to net-zero includes its commitment to achieve net-zero operational carbon emissions across all JLL offices by 2030. It has also measured and reduced carbon for over 5,000 client properties in 20 asset classes, in over 50 countries.
JLL has further underlined its own sustainability credentials with significant investments into its own infrastructure. On 1 January 2021, Guy Grainger became JLL’s first Global Head of Sustainability Services & ESG, and this C-Suite commitment to expand JLL’s substantial capability in providing sustainability services is supported by a target of recruiting and training 500 new sustainability-focused staff by 2023.
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She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
