According to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, buildings are one of the world’s main contributors to climate change with 44% of the Britain’s emissions attributable to the built environment. Therefore, it is important that all property and construction companies take sustainability seriously and for this reason British Land, a UK-based property investment and development company with a property portfolio of around £16.9bn, is calling for an industry-wide initiative to advance the development and construction of sustainable buildings – starting with the supply chain.
Claudine Blamey, corporate responsibility director, emphasises that although British Land has already developed a supply chain policy for itself, it is an “industry issue” and that businesses “all buy the same sort of things and the same sort of services, so we may as well be hitting the suppliers once rather than a 100 times”. She adds: “Take marble from China, for example, we need a process in place to start labelling materials on their sustainability credentials – like the Forest Stewardship Council.” And this, according to Blamey, can only be effectively carried out by an industry-wide task force.
Integrating sustainability
Marble from China aside, sustainable development with regard to the built environment is a big issue for British Land and this is evident when Blamey explains how it is embedded within the company.
When a site is selected, the development department – the team responsible for construction – is handed the Sustainability Brief, which ensures that sustainability is integrated into every development project from the beginning. The document outlines a process of objectives and targets with regard to design, pre-construction and actual construction.
A similar process is outlined for other departments too. For example, the investment department looks at flooding, energy and other sustainability issues when buying already existing buildings and tries to rectify any problems – such as inefficient boilers – that arise.
Managing occupiers
Once a building has been developed or bought, it is filled with occupiers – one of the key stakeholder groups for British Land. Blamey explains that whether or not the responsibility for maintaining sustainability of the building lies with British Land depends on the occupier.
“If it is a single-let building – one tenant in one building – then it is all their responsibility and there is very little say that we have in that situation, but when it is multi-let – lots of tenants in one building – then the common areas of that building (like lifts and stairwells) are our responsibility. The areas where the tenants are based are their own responsibility,” she adds. An example is Marks & Spencer, which rents retail space from British Land: The retailer buys its own energy separately for its stores and British Land does not have influence over this.
However, the company is looking towards establishing environmental groups in properties where it has a number of buildings or tenants. “The biggest carbon footprint comes from the let areas of our properties, so we are starting to work with our tenants,” says Blamey. One of the first environmental groups has been established at Broadgate in the City of London. The group meets on a quarterly basis and is made up of “all sorts of different occupiers”. It is starting to look at carbon emissions and how to reduce it for the Broadgate area – as a team and not as individual tenants. British Land plans to expand this to its other properties and Blamey adds that it is not only considering energy use but also the issue of waste and waste disposal.
Management of corporate responsibility
This all encompassing approach to corporate responsibility means that there is no central CR department. Instead, there is a corporate responsibility committee which is chaired by Peter Clarke, executive officer of British Land, who reports to the executive committee and the board. This committee, which is made up of the heads of departments, takes responsibility for targets and progress. She says: “Each member of that committee has responsibility for objectives and targets to do with their own area and then we report on the progress of these targets,” and adds that this means that the initiatives “trickle down into their departments because, as head of the department, they delegate”.
In this way, the company aims to integrate corporate responsibility throughout the organisation. This is also achieved through company-wide board reviews, which assess key business risks including corporate responsibility issues.
Reporting
Progress on targets is also reported annually in the corporate responsibility report and, this year, British Land has chosen to print only a summary of its corporate responsibility initiatives, with the full report available online. The summary report is included with the annual financial report in order to encourage even further integration of corporate responsibility values.
Stakeholder engagement
Reporting on corporate responsibility progress is tightly bound to the issues most important to British Land’s stakeholders. Consultation with the company’s stakeholders – the shareholders, employees, occupiers, local communities and suppliers – takes place every two years and results in the development of a new strategy with regard to corporate responsibility.
In 2006, the company focused on seven areas of risk and opportunity identified during such a consultation in 2005. These areas are:
- British Land staff
- Occupiers and suppliers
- Regeneration
- Community
- Resource use
- Waste management
- Biodiversity
As Briefing goes to print, British Land is carrying out its 2007 stakeholder survey and “looking at those seven focus areas in line with the stakeholder consultation”.
Blamey explains that a new strategy will probably be adopted out of the data collected.
Regeneration partnerships: West Euston Partnership
One issue that has remained relevant to stakeholders year-on-year is regeneration. British Land has been involved with a project in West Euston since 1984 when it bought a commercial property – Regent’s Place – in the area.
The company started to consider how it could work with the local community to combat social exclusion and deprivation. In 1992, it became a founding member of the West Euston Partnership, which was established to work with the community to make the area a better place to live and work. Other members include Camden Council, the Health Authority, the Crown Estate, University College London, the police, occupiers associations and community groups.
The initiative involves volunteering, events, reconstructing Regent’s Place itself and community consultation. British Land also encourages sustainable travel and found that between 2000 and 2003 cycling to work doubled and car-use in the area halved.
It is not just the community that benefits from the regeneration project but the company too. It motivates staff via volunteering opportunities, it improves the management of the property, it creates a positive atmosphere for occupiers and it also helps build relationships with local people.
Further community work
Apart from regeneration, British Land also contributes to the local communities in which its properties are based – Blamey states that its 804 national staff are encouraged to volunteer and in 2006, British Land contributed £2.5m to charitable causes. This included in-kind giving as well as the provision of office space and funding to charities.
As part of its community work, British Land has launched a Sustainability Exhibition, which opened on August 21 and will initially tour eight of its properties until December to raise awareness of its drive to reduce water, waste and energy use. The exhibition is a joint initiative with Business in the Community.
The exhibition provides practical information regarding carbon footprint reduction and making informed environmental choices. Each venue will display these messages on stands and will also showcase its own environmental initiatives.
Blamey explains that the aim is to raise awareness and to “put British Land out there more”. She adds: “We haven’t really screamed and shouted about what we do but I think we are in a place now where we can start doing a bit more on the marketing and PR side because we have really good things going on and I don’t think it is greenwash to talk about them.”
Conclusion
Increasing communications about these issues is to be welcomed. As long as spin is avoided, raising awareness of the importance of sustainable and ethical building practices is essential in tackling the challenges faced by the property sector. By casting itself as one of the leaders in the field of environmentally- and socially-friendly construction British Land is raising the bar and encouraging other businesses in the sector to follow suit.
Claudine has been director of corporate responsibility at British Land since September 2002. She is responsible for national environmental and corporate responsibility policy, implementation and communication. Claudine is also a board member of the UK Green Business Council and chair of UKGBC policy and communications policy committee as well as a board member of the Corporate Responsibility Group.
Before this she was the environment manager at Honda (UK). This diverse role included implementing the company’s environmental policy throughout the car, motorcycle and power equipment divisions and dealerships as well as communicating with NGO’s, government and local communities to raise public awareness of Honda’s environmental profile and initiatives.
Claudine obtained a BSc Honours degree in environmental control at Greenwich University and a Masters degree in environmental management and legislation from Brunel University.