Climate Change

Our objective is to reduce GHG emissions across our value chain, through the consideration of emissions during construction, our own operations and the activities of our tenants in our assets and through the reporting of actual emissions on an annual basis.

To ensure our assets and infrastructure are resilient and where necessary, adaptable in the face of a changing climate and potential increases in events such as flooding and overheating.

GHG Emissions

• Over the past two years, we have worked with Buro Happold to understand the GHG emissions resulting from our developments during construction and we are continuing to identify ways to reduce their impact during operation with the development of our Pathway to Carbon Zero.
• Ensuring our energy delivery and carbon strategies remain relevant against a backdrop of a rapidly decarbonising energy system and emerging policy is essential to ensuring that our buildings, systems and infrastructure do not become obsolete or pose climate-related risks during their lifetime.
• As we reduce our operational impacts, emissions as a result o four construction activities become proportionally more significant. We have taken steps to understand these impacts and are now working with our design and construction teams to actively reduce them. We also undertook a retrospective assessment of embodied carbon of one of our recently completed residential buildings. The results of this can be found in our report but we have since developed reduction targets for our future projects and are currently working towards achieving these goals.

2021 ESG Report: Climate Change

Operational Emissions

• Our most significant operational emissions are as a result of energy consumption in our buildings, both within our operational control and indirectly as a result of the activities of our tenants.
• Although the majority of our assets by Gross Asset Value (GAV) are residential, we operate a wide selection of asset types, including retail, office and leisure. These all have different emission profiles and pose unique challenges in reduction. 
• The strength of our vertically integrated team is to address any disconnect between design and as built performance, a complicated relationship that we are approaching through improved metering and monitoring.
• In 2021, we will be submitting performance data relating to the energy use, waste and GHG emissions of our business to the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), allowing us to compare the performance of our portfolio of standing assets with those of companies of a similar composition.
• In 2021, we will also be using the Carbon Risk Real Estate Monitor (CRREM) to support the development of a GHG reduction pathway in line with globally agreed reduction targets adn our emerging approach to setting a timeline and strategy for achieving Zero Carbon. 

Resilience & adaptation

• Ensuring that our buildings and public realm are resilient in the face of climatic changes will ensure their longevity and fitness for purpose into the future, so we are planning now for these future scenarios.
• Considerations are being made around the materials and methods we use and the ways in which we design play an integral part in our design process. This will help to reduce our exposure to climate-related financial risks; and for our occupants, will result in a more comfortable environment.