Commitment to environmentalism is vital to ensure progress in the commercial property sector. The previous government’s pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by 2050, remains in force. Environmental acts and directives continue to be passed, affecting current and projected commercial property developments. Carbon footprints, sustainability and corporate social responsibility are all concepts now ingrained in the lexicon of 21st century business.
The Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) has recognised the importance of climate change within the commercial property world, issuing a toolkit, available as a free download, intended for managing agents to learn how to incorporate best sustainability practice into building management.
The toolkit is split into seven sections: energy, waste, water, alterations and replacement, transport, cleaning, and sharing initiatives.
Each section is divided into categories designed to ensure compliance with current regulations and offers guidance for developing environmental strategies. Categories include waste management, carrying out energy audits, procuring green energy and sustainable transport facilities. The 69-page document places commercial property managing agents as central to the process, stating that the ‘primary objective for a managing agent should be to implement an energy reduction strategy that achieves the combined aspirations of the building owner and occupiers’.
There are also how-to guides for carrying out energy audits, disposing of hazardous waste and providing training for staff included within the toolkit.
The tone is not entirely prescriptive, it is written with a nod to the current economic climate, offering financial and efficiency advice. Anticipated developments for the commercial property sector are included. In the section for Display Energy Certificates (DECs), it predicts that ‘from 2012, DECs will be required for buildings over 500m2 and from 2015 for buildings over 250m2’.The BPP is a collaboration of fifteen of the largest commercial property owners in the UK and the toolkit has been produced in partnership with the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency (LDA).
If you would like to read more about BPP’s sustainability toolkit for commercial property it can be downloaded fromhttp://www.betterbuildingspartnership.co.uk/download/bbp-managing-agents-sustainability-toolkit.pdf.
