ESG consultant Westbridge Advisory Argentus has increased its stake in agradblue GmbH and now holds 100 percent in the Hamburg-based sustainability specialist. Committed to climate protection, agradblue was founded in 2012 by Ralf F. Bode and offers consulting on building performance and climate protection as well as audits for sustainability certificates and green building projects. As an established partner, agradblue supports its clients from the real estate industry in the areas of ESG due diligence, carbon analytics and energy audits as well as in all issues of planning-integrated sustainability around climate-neutral projects. The company consists of around 35 sustainability specialists and is based in Hamburg.
Westbridge Managing Director Rüdiger Salzmann describes the idea behind the majority stake: "Our declared goal is to create a European market leader for ESG consulting in the real estate industry. We will only achieve this goal if we act as a one-stop store, offering our clients holistic, cost-efficient and seamless advice from the portfolio to the property level. In this respect, the overall integration of agradblue into the Westbridge ecosystem creates significant added value for customers and streamlines processes.
The founder of agradblue, Ralf F. Bode, will remain on board as Managing Director and shareholder of Westbridge Advisory Argentus and will continue to act as a management duo together with Rüdiger Salzmann. Bode emphasizes: "We were one of the first companies to make sustainability in the building sector measurable and tangible. The topic has gained significant momentum in recent years. It makes us proud that we have made a contribution to this."
Rüdiger Salzmann concludes: "With the expansion of our company, we are pursuing the goal of structuring our consulting mandates even better, both nationally and internationally. Whether we are based in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Zurich or Warsaw, proximity to the client is an important quality feature for us. For this reason, we will also open additional company locations in the future - in Germany, but also in other European countries. Our ambition is to act on the pulse of time and to constantly expand our product range against the background of the necessary area-wide decarbonization of the real estate industry."
Westbridge plans to organize itself into two major product groups in the future. On the one hand, there will be the "Sustainabilty Consulting" division for portfolio owners and project developers, as well as the "Sustainability Operations" division with the core target group of property and facility managers. While the Sustainability Consulting unit will focus on guiding companies and their properties on the path to climate neutrality and providing long-term support, the Sustainability Operations unit will be dedicated to the cost-efficient operation of buildings, for example through smart meter rollouts or energy purchasing.