I am delighted to be taking on the brief for developing and implementing our partnership approach to corporate responsibility strategy, having been actively involved at a senior level for a number of years.
Head of Planning
and Environment
“As a business we have a responsibility to all those people whose lives we affect, to businesses which occupy our properties, to people who work or shop at our properties, or who live nearby, to our own staff and those of our suppliers, to our shareholders who have invested their funds in our business and to future generations who will be affected by the way in which we treat our planet and its finite resources.
We are already working with our partners to generate significant savings in energy and water use, at the same time as meeting and anticipating our customers’ needs. However, the extent to which we rely on others also presents challenges, as partnerships can sometimes lead to inaction and we can only achieve results by managing our relationships with suppliers and occupiers effectively. We will continue to drive all aspects of our performance and respond to the needs of our partners.
We are getting significant buy-in from our occupiers on our efficiency initiatives, which are delivering cost reductions, for instance through less energy and water use, and focused security and cleaning contracts. We have also helped occupiers to build strong relationships with local people at properties such as Regent’s Place in London and Glasgow Fort Shopping Park. We continue to anticipate occupiers’ future demands, for instance developing 60,000 sq ft of green roof space in central London to encourage biodiversity and provide our occupiers with a pleasant environment to work in or look out upon. The response from occupiers is very encouraging and we firmly believe that by addressing customers’ existing and future requirements in this way we will achieve a business advantage.
In terms of developments, over the last couple of years we have benefited from the chance to review our approach to sustainable developments during a quieter period, for instance, reviewing embodied carbon and exploring environmental and social impacts. As we move back towards more development activity, this provides a firm base for our approach to sustainability. Next year, we will be updating our Sustainability Brief for Developments to reflect feedback from our project teams, as well as best practice and regulatory requirements.
Going forward, we will maintain our partnership approach, embedding corporate responsibility amongst our staff and suppliers, at the same time as working closely with our customers and local people. We will be carrying out independent surveys over the next year or two, to identify further opportunities to raise performance and increase the satisfaction levels of our staff, customers and local communities, as well as to improve customer satisfaction with our suppliers. We already work intensively with investors and will look at ways to communicate with them more closely on corporate responsibility, exploring what issues matter to them most, as well as doing more work to understand the links between corporate responsibility and business success.
When we started targeting BREEAM Excellent ratings for all of our office developments several years ago, we correctly anticipated future occupier demand for more sustainable commercial buildings. We are now seeing financial and business service companies competing with each other on the sustainability credentials of their offices. Similarly, our commitment to carbon neutrality has prepared us to deal with the financial and administrative implications of the Government’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme which came into effect this year.
Thanks to our rigorous approach to managing and monitoring issues such as energy efficiency, water use, recycling and customer satisfaction, we are well placed to meet more demanding regulatory requirements, financial pressures and stakeholder expectations. Ultimately the test of whether our corporate responsibility strategy is working is our ability to offer enduring occupier appeal.
We recognise that the calibre of organisations which select us as their partner of choice will reflect our success in providing a sustainable environment in which modern business can thrive.”
