about

the founder

michelle marie farrell

For nearly two decades, Michelle Marie Farrell has worked at the intersection of real estate, building performance, and finance—helping developers, financial institutions, and investors translate better-performing buildings into commercially viable investments.

Her background combines architecture and building physics with business analytics and climate finance. She spent more than a decade working with building-performance technology across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the United States, followed by work with the World Bank Group through the International Finance Corporation (IFC), its private-sector arm, where she supported sustainable building and climate-finance programs across emerging markets and worked directly with financial institutions, developers, investors, and corporate clients.

Having lived in the United States, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and China, and worked across markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, Michelle has seen the same challenge repeatedly: better buildings do not scale through sustainability ambition alone. They scale when engineering performance, credible data, and the right capital structure come together.

She created this platform to turn that experience into practical tools, strategies, and financing solutions—helping real estate owners, developers, corporations, lenders, funds, and investors move from sustainability objectives to bankable projects, stronger financing propositions, and investable opportunities.

partners

Lenore Cairncross

Strategic Advisor, Sustainable Finance & Investment

Freedom to Flourish, Cape Town South Africa

Lenore Cairncross is a climate finance and sustainable investment leader with 17+ years of experience spanning investment banking, project and structured finance, development finance, institutional investment, asset management, and green buildings.

She spent five years with Standard Bank Group structuring debt and equity solutions for major energy, infrastructure, and commodity finance transactions across Africa and emerging markets, with projects ranging from US$100 million to US$1 billion. She later moved into alternative investments at Old Mutual, where she originated and managed affordable housing investments for a development impact fund. She subsequently spent over eight years at IFC, the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, leading a regional green building market transformation program across Africa.

At IFC, Lenore helped scale EDGE to more than 12 million m² of certified green buildings across Africa and supported advisory linked to over US$1.7 billion in sustainable finance investments. Today, she advises clients on investment readiness, sustainable finance strategy, financing structures, and engagement with DFIs and institutional investors. She holds an MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and an MBA from GIBS, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

media

Above: Interview with CNBC Africa, Panelist at COP28 at the United Nations Environment Pavilion, Panelist at COP28 at the Rwanda Pavilion

EDGE for Self-Built Homes: A success story from India: IFC Impact Story

Michelle managed and filmed the story of Aavas Financiers, one of India's leading housing loan finance companies, to tell the story of how they partnered with IFC to create a solution to allow for EDGE certification of self-built houses, a game-changing innovation in the affordable housing sector.

Knowledge Events and Webinars - September 2024

Michelle Farrell uses her vast network of sustainability professionals and experts to conceptualize and execute both online and face to face sessions that establish and maintain IFC's thought leader position in the green building market. In this session, she explored issues faced by SIDS/small island states.

Gustavo Favaron Interviews: Michelle Farrell - “ESG reporting is no longer an option”

In a conversation with Gustavo Favaron, CEO & Managing Partner of GRI Club at India GRI 2023, Michelle discussed the global shift towards ESG reporting, emphasising that it is no longer a mere trend but a mandatory requirement in many countries, as seen with India's imminent Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR).

Michelle Farrell represents IFC at high-level public and private sector engagements - Jamaica, August 2024

Supported the IFC launch of the EDGE Buildings program in the country during a roundtable discussion with key CEOs in the financial, real estate, conglomerate, health, energy, and agriculture sectors.