TOOLKIT LAUNCHED TO ACCELERATE CO2 REDUCTIONS

08/04/2009

The Better Buildings Partnership (BBP), the group of leading property owners brought together by the London Development Agency (LDA), has published a comprehensive toolkit for green leases to enable owners and occupiers to work together to reduce the environmental impact of real estate. This will help both parties to play their part in reaching the Mayor of London’s target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2025.

Green leases have long been recognised as a powerful mechanism to drive CO₂ savings in commercial property. However, until now there has been a lack of guidance on how to effect changes within existing lease structures, which can have over 15 years left to run. The guidance published today by the BBP has been developed to fill this gap and accelerate the process of making London’s existing commercial properties more sustainable.

The toolkit not only provides model form drafting for a green lease, but also a model form Memorandum of Understanding which can be implemented by owners and occupiers at any stage of their lease relationship; and it is flexible enough to allow for different property types and sizes.

Organisations including Philips Electronics, M&S, Asda, Costa Coffee, WH Smith and B&Q have already signed green leases. GE Real Estate, hurleypalmerflatt, Henderson Global Investors, Mayer Brown and Reed Smith intend to work with the new BBP Memorandum of Understanding alongside their current lease agreements.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said:

“Congratulations to the Better Buildings Partnership on producing this excellent energy efficiency advice for London's commercial landlords and tenants. Commercial buildings account for a third of the capital's carbon emissions so it is hugely encouraging that this initiative will help them save energy, save money and help to create a greener city."

Keith Bugden, Chairman of the BBP Green Lease Working Group and Director of Development at Hermes said:

“It is absolutely vital that owners and occupiers work together to reduce the impact that commercial buildings have on the environment if we are to have any chance of achieving the significant levels of CO2 reduction required to meet both the London Mayor’s and the government’s UK targets. I hope that this guidance will be used extensively as a tool to promote meaningful dialogue and effect real change.”

British Land’s Peter Clarke, Chairman of the Better Building Partnership, said:

“Increasingly we are seeing that improving environmental performance of buildings reduces occupational costs. We believe that this comprehensive toolkit will be all that occupiers and owners need to change behaviours helping to save both money and the planet.”

The aim of the BBP is to improve the sustainability of London’s existing building stock and to accelerate the reduction in CO2 emissions, supporting the Mayor of London’s target of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2025 from 1990 levels.

Developing new buildings that are energy efficient is relatively straightforward and is the subject of copious legislation and best practice guidance. However, greening the other 98% of buildings which make up existing stock has, until recently, received much less attention.

These new guidelines are non-prescriptive, helping owners and occupiers to agree carbon, energy, waste and water reduction strategies which best fit with the circumstances of individual properties.

The BBP’s initial green lease guidance, published in November 2008, provided best practice principles for owners and occupiers to work together in improving environmental performance of commercial buildings. The new toolkit, published today, builds on this work and includes two additional sections providing model form documents covering green leases and MoU’s.

With this comprehensive guidance now available, it is possible for any owner or occupier to positively engage in developing practical ways to effect significant change.