Pascal Mittermaier

Columnist

Pascal Mittermaier is the Global Managing Director for Cities at The Nature Conservancy, a US based conservation NGO active in over 35 countries. He leads a new team at the Conservancy focused on transforming how the world’s growing cities manage their natural resources.

Most recently, Pascal served as the Head of Sustainability, Europe and Managing Director for London’s Elephant & Castle Regeneration at Lend Lease, a global property and construction company. In this role, Pascal was responsible for embedding innovative environment and social approaches across all of Lend Lease’s businesses. Pascal also led the Elephant & Castle regeneration project in central London, a 10-year project to develop 3,000 of the UK’s most energy efficient homes, including an on-site clean energy plant, a cycle-walk-public transport infrastructure and the largest new park in Central London in 70 years. The project incorporates many green innovations and is part of the C40 Cities Climate Positive Development Program, a network of leading cities from around the world committed to implementing meaningful and sustainable climate-related policies and programmes.

Pascal was also a Board Director of FSC UK, and a frequent lecturer at Cambridge University’s Programme for Sustainable Leadership.

Prior to finding his career path in sustainability, Pascal worked at the Swiss healthcare company Roche, where he was Managing Director of Roche in Canada and Italy. Whilst in Italy he met Marco and Enea Roveda, working with LifeGate on optimising Roche’s sustainability performance. The partnership with Lifegate helped Roche Italy reduce its carbon footbprint by 45%. This included optimization of logistics, energy procurement and planting new trees on the Monza campus. Roche also built a 1.4 MW photovoltaic covered parking lot on its site, one of the largest in Italy.

Pascal fell in love with LifeGate’s vision, becoming shareholder in 2010.

He studied Economics and History at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and completed his MSc. in Climate Change and Sustainable Development from DeMontfort University.

He is now based in Boston, Massachusetts where he lives with his family. Along with nature conservation, his lifelong passions are kitesurfing and drumming.

Last article

Planting Healthy Air, the study showing that trees planted in cities can save lives

Heat waves and high rates of air pollution in cities account for millions of deaths every year. Trees are a partial solution to this problem: they cool the air and reduce PM levels.

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One billion strong. How Chinese megacities can lead on urban conservation

The scale and speed at which China is urbanizing is unique. Over the past three decades, the country has experienced an unprecedented economic and social transformation as millions have been lifted out of poverty. More than 400 million of its citizens have moved from the countryside to cities. Every year 15 million Chinese flock to

As seas rise, nature can protect our cities

The Antarctic ice sheets are melting more quickly than predicted and sea levels around the world could rise by 1.5 to 2 metres this century – double compared to some previous estimates. This has been met with concerns for 45 million displaced in coastal Chinese cities and major Australian population centres “slipping under the waves”,

Bold mayors are remaking the climate in the city century

Will this week bring an agreement to keep the world from tipping into irreconcilable climate change? Perhaps, but regardless of the headlines from COP21, something very important is happening. Some of the biggest gains for the environment are happening on the streets of urban areas the world over. Cities at COP21 and beyond are already

Gardens protect cities from flooding, storms and climate change

When it rains in urban areas, especially when it rains heavily, water flows straight from concrete infrastructure into sewer pipes, which are often antiquated and overloaded, then into surrounding rivers or oceans. Such water causes personal tragedies and generates huge costs when streets overflow, and carries unfiltered pollutants that can damage the environment. The

Breathing new life into cities: how nature can transform urban landscapes

In just 35 years it’s estimated that 6 billion people, the equivalent of the world’s entire population in the year 2000, will live in cities. With three quarters of humanity living in urban areas – the largest migration in human history – there will undoubtedly be major stress points. During this time, we’ll have to reimagine