The One With... The Investor Who Switched Sides To Run The Climate Standard For Real Estate

CRREM tells real estate investors whether their assets are Paris-aligned or heading for stranding risk.Andrea Palmer is one year into the role as CRREM's first CEO — appointed after leading ESG integration for PGGM's global listed real estate portfolio, where she was pricing climate risk into valuations before most of the industry was paying attention. She previously worked at LaSalle Investment Management, GRESB, and Triodos. In this conversation she draws a hard line between two ways the industry uses CRREM — and argues that collapsing them is where the confusion starts.The first is transition risk assessment: understanding exposure, pricing it, and deciding whether to mitigate, accept, or get paid for it. The second is portfolio climate alignment — a different intent that can be achieved through capital reallocation without any CapEx. Andrea also addresses whether grid decarbonisation gives asset owners a free pass, reveals methodology assumptions being retired, and explains the deliberate strategy to embed CRREM into existing tech platforms rather than building a standalone tool.Key timestamps[00:00:00] Andrea's path from Chicago to Amsterdam via LaSalle and GRESB[00:06:00] How she approached CRREM — and what the first year has been like[00:13:00] The two buckets: transition risk assessment vs climate alignment[00:21:00] Grid decarbonisation assumptions baked into CRREM — policies not targets[00:25:00] Top-down pathways vs bottom-up asset reality — the pizza oven problem[00:36:00] Expanding to climate zone pathways for the US and Australia[00:39:30] Data centres: why they need an entirely new methodology[00:42:30] London Climate Week — Technical Council and the 0.8 version of CRREM's 2030 vision[00:48:00] Hong Kong — self-organised data sharing and the open contribution model[00:50:30] The one-to-many strategy and why Andrea doesn't want another login[00:54:30] Embodied carbon — relevant but not ready[00:57:00] Magic wand: data sharing across the board[01:00:00] Education at LP and banking level — the critical missing pieceOrganizations mentionedCRREM FoundationPGGM / PFZWLaSalle Investment ManagementGRESBTriodos Investment ManagementEPRANorges Bank Investment Management (NBIM)U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)APG Asset ManagementInternational Energy Agency (IEA)CBREThe Future We Build is a podcast exploring sustainability, innovation and systemic change in the built environment, hosted by Alex Edds.New episodes released weekly. Filmed at Obolife showroom, 8 Goswell Road, London - with thanks to Gary HelmPost production by AtalorFollow the showLinkedIn: The Future We BuildConnect with AlexConnect on LinkedInMore about our guestConnect with Andrea Palmer on LinkedInCRREM Foundation: https://crrem.org