Associate, Sustainability

Overview

In this London-based role, you will drive global sustainability initiatives for Starwood’s real estate portfolio, owning workstreams and reporting to the Head of Sustainability. You’ll modernize the operating model through technology and AI-enabled processes to improve efficiency and decision-making. You will contribute to due diligence, value creation, and investor communications across regions, with exposure to the investment process. This is a high-ownership, fast-paced role with global impact.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and develop the firm’s responsible investment policies and practical guidance for investment teams
• Monitor sustainability regulations across UK, EU, US, and APAC and support firm-wide compliance
• Lead modernization of the sustainability function via technology-enabled and AI-assisted workflows
• Partner with acquisitions globally to assess sustainability during due diligence
• Collaborate with asset management to identify energy efficiency, renewables, and operational improvements
• Engage portfolio company managements and partners to identify and execute value creation opportunities
• Assess physical and transition climate risks across the portfolio
• Own data collection, validation and analysis for the global portfolio and improve databases and reporting tools
• Manage GRESB and PRI participation and draft investor-facing sustainability materials
• Support investor engagement and respond to inquiries on sustainability and responsible investment

Key requirements

• 4+ years in a fast-paced, multifaceted sustainability or related role with global exposure
• Bachelor’s degree with strong academic record
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills with high attention to detail
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI tools and large language models (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT) to enhance research, analysis, and documentation
• Strong project management and organizational skills; able to manage multiple priorities across functions
• Self-starter who can lead complex workstreams with limited supervision

• ownership mindset
• effective stakeholder management
• communication
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• AI tools and large language models (e.g., Claude, ChatGPT)

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