Resource Efficiency

Energy use & efficiency

Our objective is to design, construct and operate our assets in an energy efficient manner, identifying opportunities for reductions and over time, reducing overall energy consumption.

Water use & efficiency

Our objective is to design, construct and operate our assets in a water efficient manner, identifying opportunities for reductions and over time, reducing overall water consumption.

Waste & circular economy

Our objective is to reduce the quantity of material described as waste, efficiently manage the waste that we and our occupants generate and to optimise facilities and opportunities for reuse and recycling across our value chain.

Energy Use & Efficiency

In the first instance, we aim to design buildings and infrastructure that are energy efficient from the outset; our approach to the design of our buildings has evolved over time, adapting to the needs of our occupiers and operational management teams.
Reducing the demand for energy is the first step in our approach to energy efficient design, contributing to lower operational costs and reduced GHG emissions.
Part of our pathway to Zero Carbon workstream has been to develop targets for maximum energy consumption in our new buildings, reducing over time.
To achieve our required levels, we adopt a 'fabric first' approach, prioritising passive measures and ensuring our buildings are well-insulated and airtight, with controlled, energy-efficient ventilation is incorporated to ensure occupant comfort.

We appoint specialist cladding consultants who are involved at all stages, from developing the brief to reviewing external works and providing final sign-off of the completed building.
The commissioning and handover process typically commences 12 months before the due handover date, when our mobilisation team begin to familiarise themselves with the operational details of the building and are involved in regular discussions with the project and construction teams.
Once a building is completed and handed over to our operational teams, we monitor energy use and adopt a number of strategies to reduce energy consumption.

Water Use & Efficiency

In a similar vein to our approach to energy use and efficiency, we design our assets to be water efficient from the outset, and then ensure that this is monitored during operation to identify any issues and potential reduction opportunities.
Our landscaping strategies vary depending on their location within the public realm. Particularly in recent years, we have installed planting that requires minimal water and can survive in periods of drought and a large proportion of the new park will be of this low-maintenance type.
Once a building is completed and handed over to our operational teams, we monitor water use and adopt a number of strategies to reduce consumption; the same applies across our public realm.

Waste & Circular Economy

How we manage waste has been an important part of our public realm strategy for over a decade.

The decision to pioneer the UK's first - and until recently, only - underground vacuum waste system was made over a decade ago, and we continue to identify ways to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover our waste, achieving 100% diversion of waste from landfill across our operations.

Identifying opportunities to reduce waste begins at the design and procurement stages of a project, so we set design briefs to target waste reduction and identify opportunities for higher-value reuse of materials.

Evaluating the materials we already have on hand and finding new ways to reinvent them is an approach we are taking across the business.

Although we are not directly responsible for the majority of the waste generated at our assets, we monitor waste data so that we can provide targeted support to our occupiers.

2021 ESG Report: Resource Efficiency