UK property consultant Bidwells names sustainability head

UK property and agribusiness consultancy Bidwells has appointed Helen Newman as Group Head of Sustainability to support clients’ transformation.

Newman started her career as an environmental consultant and has more than 10 years of sustainable property and investment experience – including as Head of Sustainable Capital at real estate firm CBRE.

In that role, she supported the development of Barclays Bank’s first Sustainable Residential Development Framework by establishing performance requirements for sustainability-linked loans to residential real estate developers.

She joins Bidwells from real estate developer Fabrix, where she spent the past year as Director of Sustainable Investing.

In her new role, Newman will focus on providing sustainability consultancy services to clients. “Helen is an industry leader in sustainability and will be a massive asset for the firm as we build out our offering across all our service lines. She wields vast experience, having advised some of the biggest names and firms in the industry to improve their environmental and social performance. As Group Head, Helen will lead on our client-facing sustainability offering, as we build out a market-leading offering to support our 2030 growth plan,” said Nick Pettit, Senior Partner at Bidwells.

Newman also holds a number of sustainability advisory roles at property and real estate associations, including the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), New London Architecture and the Urban Land Institute, as well as industry media outlet BE News.

Commenting on her appointment, she added: “At this critical time, I am delighted to join Bidwells’ with the opportunity scale our integrated solutions across real assets including portfolio decarbonisation and sustainable development, energy and renewables infrastructure, optimising place-based social impact, urban regreening and practical BNG delivery, and landscape-scale habitat and nature restoration from peatlands to woodlands.”

Bidwells, which posted a turnover of £57.5 million in 2022, is working to achieve net zero emissions by 2030 as part of its ESG strategy – which also includes providing sustainability training to 85% of employees and assessing 50% of suppliers by spend on their sustainability credentials.