About The Future We Build

The Future We Build is a podcast about sustainability in real estate when it is shaped by innovation, investment, and real commercial decision making.

Hosted by Alex Edds, a corporate sustainability innovator with over 20 years inside the real estate industry, the show draws on his experience working within large property companies, advising venture capital, and advising PropTech and climate tech disruptors that are bringing new ideas and products to market.

Rather than treating sustainability as a reporting exercise, the podcast explores how innovation actually enters corporate environments, how buying decisions are made, and why so many promising technologies struggle to move beyond pilots. It looks at sustainability through the lens of value creation, resilience, and human outcomes, not just carbon metrics.

Through open, mostly in-person conversations with asset managers, sustainability leaders, PropTech founders, and venture capital investors, The Future We Build examines the realities of scaling innovation inside real estate. It surfaces the internal constraints, commercial pressures, and unspoken objections that shape adoption, as well as the ideas and approaches that successfully break through.

This is a show for people building, backing, and buying the next generation of solutions for the built environment. It is not about hype or headline friendly innovation. It is about what actually works, what doesn't, and why.

For asset managers protecting portfolio value, sustainability leaders driving change, PropTech founders refining go to market strategies, and investors seeking scalable impact, this podcast offers rare insight into how sustainability, innovation, and capital intersect in practice.

Our Episodes

Click on the links to watch and listen to previous episodes

Season 1 Trailer

The Trailer. What you can expect from Season 1.
Welcome to The Future We Build—a podcast for the people creating fundamental change in how we build, invest in, and inhabit our world.

Episode 001.

The one with.. the $4tn climate coalition transforming real estate.
In this inaugural episode of The Future We Build, Alex sits down with ⁠Vincent Van Bijleveld ⁠from ⁠GREEN ⁠(Global Real Estate Engagement Network) to explore how institutional capital is—or isn't—driving decarbonization in real estate. Vincent offers a rare investor perspective on the tensions between financial returns and climate goals, the limitations of current rating systems, and why real estate might be easier to transform than we think.

The one with...the godmothers of green buildings. Time for creativity, collaboration and leadership
In this special episode, Alex returns to his roots with two remarkable leaders who shaped the beginning of his sustainability journey. Julie Hirigoyen (former CEO of UK GBC, now advisor to investors and property companies) and Sarah Ratcliffe (CEO of Better Buildings Partnership).

Episode 002.

Get in Touch

• Suggested guests and topic ideas for the Podcast

• An introduction to one of the guest speakers

• Support and advice from Alex

• Invite Alex to speak or moderate an event

• Enquire about sponsorship or advertising opportunities on the Podcast

  Please get in touch.

Email

alex@thefuturewebuildpodcast.com