Principal, Sustainable Finance

ABOUT CAGBC

For over 20 years, CAGBC has led the movement for high-performing, green buildings. We believe that by transforming the built environment, we can create a more sustainable future and communities where people can thrive in resilient, healthy buildings and homes.

JOB PURPOSE

Under the direction of the Director, Strategy and Advocacy, the Principal, Sustainable Finance & Climate Risk, serves as an enterprise-wide strategic resource to advance CAGBC’s sustainable finance and climate risk priorities. The role supports CAGBC’s efforts to strengthen its relevance, insight, and market impact at the intersection of finance, building performance, climate risk, and sustainable real estate investment. With a primary focus on the evolving role of sustainable finance and climate risk in the real estate sector, the Principal will help shape how financial institutions, investors, insurers, governments, and building owners assess, support, and enable high-performance, low-carbon, and resilient buildings. The individual will contribute to applied research, market intelligence, technical framing, and strategic engagement with financial institutions, investors, policymakers, and industry partners. The role requires translating financial-sector interests, financing tools, risk-sharing mechanisms, and climate-risk considerations into practical programs, standards, guidance, and tools, as well as policy recommendations that support the finance sector in advancing sustainable real estate. The role will also advance pathways that reinforce the value of third-party standards, certification systems, and verified performance in sustainable finance.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Market Insight and Organizational Support

• Monitor and assess evolving developments in sustainable finance, real estate finance, valuation, physical and transition risk, resilience, adaptation, disclosure frameworks, taxonomies, regulatory environments, insurance, and related financial-sector considerations relevant to building performance.
• Identify emerging challenges and opportunities and provide recommendations on how CAGBC can strengthen its role at the intersection of building performance, finance, valuation, insurance, and public policy.
• Translate building performance, climate-risk, and resilience considerations into practical decision frameworks for financial institutions, investors, insurers, governments, and building-sector stakeholders, including implications for investment, valuation, insurance, capital planning, and asset performance.
• Work across the organization to align sustainable finance and climate-risk considerations while supporting internal understanding of market drivers and implications for CAGBC programs, standards, tools, and strategy.

Program, Risk, and Market Relevance

• Identify how CAGBC programs, standards, and tools can better support sustainable finance, valuation, disclosure, building performance, climate risk, resilience, and financial-sector needs.
• Demonstrate how third-party certification and verification can align with sustainable finance criteria and metrics, disclosure requirements, climate-risk expectations, and emerging market demands.
• Advance opportunities to position certification and verified performance as a credible, consistent, and comparable foundation for sustainable finance, disclosure, and risk management among owners, investors, lenders, insurers, and asset managers.
• Gather insights and shape organizational understanding of resilience and adaptation across building performance, standards development, climate risk, and financial decision-making, and identify practical measures that strengthen asset resilience and support real estate investment.

Research, Partnerships, and External Engagement

• Shape sustainable finance and climate risk priorities and support the development of research scopes, proposals, partnership initiatives, and market analysis related to financing mechanisms, incentives, risk-sharing tools, and investment structures.
• Engage and maintain stakeholder relationships across finance, real estate, government, valuation, insurance, and related sectors to understand market needs and identify areas for collaboration.
• Support CAGBC’s role in external initiatives related to taxonomy development, valuation, disclosure, transition planning, physical and transition risk, resilience, insurance, and verified performance.
• Develop market-facing outputs, including framing papers, crosswalks, presentations, and practical tools that communicate insights and reinforce CAGBC’s role as a trusted convenor.

Other Responsibilities

• Perform related responsibilities and duties as assigned by your supervisor.

Direct Reports

• None

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