BGES welcomes ‘groundbreaking’ net zero commitment from commercial property industry

BGES welcomes ‘groundbreaking’ net zero commitment from commercial property industry

The UK’s leading commercial real estate companies have pledged to tackle the growing risks of climate change by delivering net zero carbon building portfolios by 2050.

Launched by the Better Buildings Partnership, the Climate Change Commitment has been signed by 23 of its members, covering over £300bn AUM and +11,000 commercial properties globally, which amounts to over 1.2 million tonnes of carbon emissions per annum.

Signatories were from major real estate companies, including Aberdeen Standard Investments, Grosvenor, Lendlease Europe, Canary Wharf Group, and Transport for London.

The Commitment highlights the need for buildings to be net zero carbon by 2050 and commits signatories to publicly publish their own pathways to achieving this by the end of 2020. These pathways will cover new and existing buildings, both operational carbon and embodied carbon, and critically, include the impact of the energy consumed by the buildings’ occupiers.

Signatories will also report annually on the progress against their pathways and disclose the energy performance of their portfolios, demonstrating a clear intention to improve transparency within the market.

Sarah Ratcliffe, CEO at Better Buildings Partnership, said “The significance of this commitment cannot be under-estimated – the signatories have over £300bn AUM spanning diverse UK, European and global portfolios. These senior leaders have acknowledged the scale and urgency of action on climate change that is required, have committed to delivering net zero carbon portfolios, to improving transparency and driving market transformation.”

Gareth Barber, Managing Director at BG Energy Solutions (BGES), said “We welcome the real estate industry’s commitment to urgent and meaningful action on climate change. The built environment contributes around 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint, so decarbonising our new and existing building stock will be crucial to achieving the UK’s legally binding net zero target. At BGES we’re leading the way in providing technology solutions to reduce the operational carbon footprint of commercial buildings, and working to tackle the gap between building design and actual performance.”

Read more about what we are doing to reduce the carbon footprint of UK buildings.