”I get a tremendous amount of hate mail. It’s venomous.” CREtech’s Michael Beckerman on London, Copenhagen and the downsides of building a community of real estate climate ”activists”
Michael Beckerman's efforts to inspire the real estate sector to tackle climate change are not always met with positive feedback. The chief executive and founder of CREtech, which runs real estate tech conferences across the globe, says that the move towards real estate addressing ESG is clearer to see in Europe. But in the US there is a long way to go. "I get a tremendous amount of hate mail," he adds. It's venomous. There are the climate deniers - and these are often people from within the real estate sector. Then there are the people who ask 'why should I be paying for this?' It is really, really hard." That is why, he says, CREtech is set on travelling outside of the States to cities like London and Copenhagen to discuss these issues and bring together the key players required to make significant in-roads in addressing some of the industry's thorniest ESG-related problems. The hope is that the resulting intel will help to move the US market forward at a more rapid pace. Because, he adds, the time is now. "Real estate doesn’t move organically. It moves when external factors force change. Change, right now, is being forced." To hear more from Beckerman tune into the podcast or join him at CREtech London on 27th-28th April https://www.cretech.com/events or CREtech Climate in Copenhagen https://cretechclimate.com/.