Colliers Promotes Andrzej Gutowski to ESG Chief Officer in Central and Eastern Europe: 5 Things to Know

Commercial real estate services firm Colliers International Group has promoted Andrzej Gutowski (pictured above) to ESG chief officer for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

Here are five things to know about Gutowski's experience and expertise, and the Colliers sustainability strategy.

1. Business Scope and Scale: Colliers is a diversified professional services and investment management company. The firm serves commercial real estate users, owners, investors and developers. Key focus areas include consulting, corporate facilities, investment services, landlord and tenant representation, project management, urban planning, property and asset management, and valuation and advisory services, according to Wikipedia.

Colliers has business roots that exted back to 1898 in Vancouver, Canada. Fast forward to 2024. Colliers, based in Toronto, Canada, has roughly 19,000 employees across 66 countries. Annual revenues for 2023 were roughly $4.33 billion.

2. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Strategy: The Colliers ESG strategy involves three core values: (1) Elevating the environment, (2) elevating inclusiveness and (3) elevating health and wellbeing. Key performance highlights, according to the company's 2022 Global Impact Report, include:

• A 10.1% reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions per square foot;
• 215 million square feet of green-certified properties under management;
• 285 green certifications held by Colliers professionals; and
• 39% of Colliers’ global workforce are women.

3. Green Buildings: Colliers joined the World Green Building Council’s (WGBC) Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment in December 2023. The commitment calls for "emissions from buildings globally to be halved by 2030, and advocates for total decarbonization of buildings in operation no later than 2050," the company noted at the time.

4. Andrzej Gutowski's Experience and Role: Gutowski joined the Colliers Green building certification department in 2013, according to his company biography. He is an accredited LEED, WELL, FitWel and BREEAM specialist, the biography indicates. More recently, he was ESG director for Colliers in Poland.

Gutowski now shifts his focus to ESG chief officer in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) -- which includes Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. We don't know how much revenue the region represents for Colliers.

5. Executive Perspectives: In a prepared statement, Colliers CEE CEO Monika Rajska-Wolinska said: “I am pleased to extend a warm welcome to Andrzej as he assumes his new role. With his wealth of experience in sustainability consultancy, I am confident that he will make significant contributions to Colliers' efforts to enhance its environmental footprint and foster economic and social value throughout the organization on an international level."

Added Gutowski: “Sustainability serves as the roadmap for doing what’s right, reflecting one of Colliers' core values. Assuming the role of ESG Chief Officer for CEE is both exhilarating and prestigious. I look forward to working alongside our talented and experienced regional sustainability teams as we help our clients navigate through the dynamic and complex ESG landscape, developing their businesses' resilience and adding value to assets and organisations by addressing ESG transformation opportunities."

ESG Chief Officer: Why Technology Partners Should Care

By 2027, 25% of Global 2000 companies will have assigned a chief sustainability officer (CSO) responsible for meeting their organization’s ESG goals and making ESG-related IT purchasing decisions, according to IDC.

The bottom line: Technology partners need to extend their sales, marketing, engagement and support strategies to successfully fulfill those CSO customer needs, Sustainable Tech Partner believes.