Welcome to the latest edition of Sustainability Matters, a regular wrap from EG to make sure that you and your business is up to date with the latest news views and opinion about all that is important in the world of ESG in the built environment.
In this week’s edition we celebrate the ambitions of developers and investors to create world-leading sustainable projects.
Hong Kong investor Tenacity Group has unveiled plans for London’s first all-electric tower at 55 Gracechurch Street, EC3. A tower, which despite being four times the size of the building currently standing, will use just a quarter of its energy.
Patrick Wong, founder and chief executive of Tenacity, said he wanted the project to be “an exemplar in a new generation of office-led buildings”.
“The ongoing pandemic has raised many questions about the future of the office, but at Tenacity we are quite clear that the era of the office is not over. Rather, the lockdown has emphasised the importance of having a place to share ideas, to collaborate and innovate. We want 55 Gracechurch Street to be such a space,” he said.
Legal & General, working with Sky, has this week also got the nod to develop what they believe will be the world’s greenest TV and film studio.
The project in Elstree, north London, will not use any fossil fuels, will generate 20% of its own energy on site through solar, will harvest rainwater to use on site and will ban single-use plastics across the whole development.
It is an example of L&G putting its money where its mouth is. The institution is also making sure that it uses its voice to make government sit up a listen. Big wigs from across the business, including head of LGIM real assets Bill Hughes and Kerrigan Procter, chief executive of L&G Capital, have written to government, urging it to put the country’s net zero target at the heart of the recovery.
“The UK government, which has committed to meeting net zero emissions by 2050, recently announced a multibillion pound building and infrastructure package to fuel the country’s recovery following the pandemic,” they write. “This ambition is welcome, particularly the introduction of measures such as the retrofit voucher scheme and investments to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings.
“But the recovery must be achieved without locking in high-emitting and inefficient buildings for decades to come. As the recovery gets under way, it is crucial that the opportunity to build back better is not lost.”
L&G is calling for a number of measure that would enable the built environment – one of the biggest contributors to climate change – to properly do its bit to save the planet.
They include:
- Reintroducing net-zero carbon standards for new homes;
- A national retrofit strategy to fund the upgrading of existing homes;
- Implementing embodied carbon targets for new public buildings, large public renovations and infrastructure – with a clear trajectory towards net zero standards in the longer term;
- Raising Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards for non-domestic lettings;
- Introducing urgent legislation to improve transparency on the operational energy performance for non-domestic buildings;
- Reducing the energy performance gap through transforming mainstream industry initiatives from design for compliance to a design for performance programme; and
- Incentivising businesses to support their transition towards net zero through the use of renewable energy on-site.
“While government may be focused on its ‘build, build, build’ agenda, it must not lose sight of how this – if not regulated appropriately – will have an irreversible impact on climate change,” warn Hughes et al.
Global greenhouse emissions have hit a plateau during lockdown, air quality is noticeable better. This improvement has to be enabled to continue.
Air quality is certainly becoming an increasing battleground within the planning system, with objects and legal challenges based on air quality grounds proliferating in recent years. It should become central to discussions going forward and, as David Wood, senior associate in the planning team at Hogan Lovells International, writes in EG, planning authorities and developers alike need to be attuned to the implications for air quality on planning applications and the design, construction and operation of developments.
Hungry for more information? Make sure to visit EG’s Sustainability Hub to keep up with all things ESG at www.egi.co.uk/sustainability
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
