A brief look at Landsec’s Net-Zero corporate journey
At Landsec, we create places that make a lasting positive contribution to our communities and our planet.
To us, sustainability means anticipating and responding to the evolving needs of our customers, communities, partners, and employees. We create innovative spaces of enduring value where people can thrive now and, in the future, keeping environmental and social issues at the core of everything we do.
We were the first commercial real estate company in the world to have its carbon emission target approved by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) in 2016. This achievement was then taken further in 2019, when we aligned our science based target with the 1.5oC global warming scenario agreed under The Paris Agreement.
Going forth, in 2021, we launched our refreshed sustainability strategy: Build Well, Live Well, Act Well. This sets out how we will design, develop, and manage buildings in ways that will enhance the health of our environment and improve quality of life for our people, customers, and communities now and for future generations. We also we set up a £135m net zero transition investment fund to decarbonise our existing portfolio in line with our near-term targets, by reducing operational energy use and by moving to cleaner sources of energy. We are now delivering these plans.
We have now committed to a 70% reduction target in operational carbon emissions by 2030 compared with a 2013/14 baseline. To date, we have delivered a 52% reduction. Additionally, we have enhanced our targets to reduce embodied carbon within our developments by 50% by 2030, compared to a typical building*. We have explicitly published our embodied carbon targets across office and residential developments, seeking to achieve <500kgCO2e/m2 in office developments by 2030, and <400kg in residential ones. We believe accountability is crucial for our industry to address this challenge, and we will continue to evaluate and adjust our targets where it is possible to accelerate progress.
We’re now revisiting our net zero target against SBTi’s new Net-Zero Standard, further challenging ourselves and supporting the drive to create a common understanding of what net zero really means.
Turning commitments into reality
To deliver against these commitments, we’re working closely with our supply chain through our new Supply Chain Commitment and supporting our customers with their own transition to net zero, no matter their shape or size.
Achieving our targets will require us to rethink how we do things. Operationally, we must continue to drive down energy use by employing innovative new technologies, including AI, and support the decarbonisation of the grid by investing in renewable electricity. Within our developments, we need to focus on retention over re-development; exploring new methods of construction as we have been doing at The Forge and Timber Square, and standardising materials so they can be reused in future developments.
While we don’t yet have all the answers, we do believe that by being explicit in our targets, we can incentivise and support action across our industry. We believe that, with active engagement with and from Government, we can drive an united approach that delivers the progress and outcomes required to protect our planet.
*As defined by the London Plan Guidance for Whole-Life Carbon Assessments https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/lpg_-_wlca_guidance.pdf.
11.45 – 12.45 Audience with Landsec
The format will offer an opportunity to hear from and engage directly with company’s top management team on the detials of their corporate Net Zero journey and will offer a clearer understanding of best practices and latest thinking on co-ordinating on decarbonisation, mobilising the organisation for delivery, building innovative partnerships and financing models to fuel decarbonisation, leveraging green financing solutions, integrating carbon into business decisions and corporate governance, finding and trialling suitable decarbonisation technologies, creating actionable and cost effective decarbonisation plan, showing what the end result might look like and inspiring others with their Net Zero journey.
If you would like to meet with Mark Allan and Landsec Team please register below. If you know Landsec and their team you can get 50% off by quoting 03G-LNDS: