Mat is TFT's Chief ESG & Knowledge Officer. He's a chartered building surveyor and a chartered project management surveyor with more than 25 years of working with many leading property companies, investors and asset managers.
Over the last 10 years, Mat’s focus has shifted towards sustainability and in 2007 he founded TFT’s sustainability consultancy. Mat and his team help TFT’s clients to understand the specific sustainability risks and opportunities when making property investment and development decisions. Ultimately, he would like to see sustainability becoming part of what constitutes best practice.
Mat’s passionate about sustainability and finds that writing and lecturing regularly for RICS and for other organisations is a means of expressing and sharing this enthusiasm. Mat’s articles regularly appear in Construction News, Estates Gazette, RICS and Property Week, and he is a lead author of the RICS Guidance Note, ‘Sustainability – improving performance in existing buildings’. Also of note is Mat’s thesis, ‘Building a Greener Future’, which was published by the CIOB in 1991. He is a member of several sustainability committees including the British Property Federation, British Council for Offices, CIC and Revo.
Mat is interested in how great buildings and places can create delight and he particularly enjoys the creative re-use of existing buildings. The South Bank is a great example of how a place can be rejuvenated by considered new interventions and careful restoration of the original building fabric.
Tuffin Ferraby Taylor has launched the TFT Energy Survey 2016, its first annual survey into the current barriers to delivering truly energy efficient real estate. Given the continuing changes in the energy sector, as well as recent government announcements expected to have a significant impact on the industry, the survey explores a number of key issues including whether energy efficiency has become more or less of a priority at this stage of the economic cycle.Mat Lown, Partner and Head of Sustainability, Tuffin Ferraby Taylor, said:
Far from sitting on its laurels waiting for the government to be clearer on energy policy; investors, owners and occupiers are pro-actively looking at energy efficiency in their properties. However, significant barriers remain not only to energy efficiency but also to even small-scale renewable energy generation.By seeking to understand how the market perceives these barriers, it may help us all move towards an environment where, despite political uncertainty, technological drivers help owners and occupiers ensure their properties are ready for a post-2018 world.