The sustainability drive

Sustainability is now firmly on everybody’s agenda and the focus will intensify in the future as we approach the time when success or failure will become clearly evident in changes to our world. This focus on sustainability stretches from government to the consumer - with businesses placed in the middle expected to deliver on the targets of government and the aspirations of the consumer.

As commercial buildings (whether it be retail, office or industrial) account for some 18% of carbon emissions in the UK, we know that, as a leading property company, we have an important role to play in this. In the past decade, we have achieved annual carbon reductions of about twice the UK average each year. But we also know that in the next decade we must double our efforts to achieve at least a further 20% reduction in carbon emissions from our buildings.

I have a confidence this can be achieved by making progress on four fronts: constructing new buildings with massively improved environmental performance, introducing new technologies into the running of existing buildings, changing behaviours, and responding to new ‘carrots and sticks’ on pricing that will inevitably be introduced by government.

The right initiatives will not always be the easy ones. We know that we could achieve 100% carbon offsetting by funding low-carbon projects in other parts of the world. But we think it is better to take responsibility ourselves and use the money to drive better environmental performance on our own properties. This year the £147,000 it would have cost to offset the 18,374 tonnes of CO2 emissions from our shopping centres in 2008/09 is being invested by us in small schemes to improve sustainability such as new lighting and rainwater harvesting - and, of course, these initiatives also reduce utility costs for retailers in our centres.

We are also excited by the improvements that can come through changed behaviours, particularly around improved co-ordination of how retailers run their shops and how we manage shopping centres. Tighter collaboration and co-ordination can result in cost-free reductions in both carbon emissions and utility bills. We are delighted that some of our corporate customers in the retail sector have started to work with us and that this collaborative working is already reaping rewards.

With the size of the challenge we face on reducing carbon emissions, we know we will have to bring forward a whole bank of initiatives. So in the past year we have produced a sustainability guide that outlines practical steps that will make retailers’ business more sustainable while reducing cost. We have also arranged for our largest shopping centres to host an environmental exhibition helping consumers to learn more about reducing their own impacts and we are finalising a low-carbon fit-out guide for new retailers joining our centres.

By continuing to work together, I am confident we can make a real difference and drive improvements not only for the benefit of the environment and our customers, but also for our businesses.

Francis Salway is chief executive of Land Securities