the green agenda sustainability
Glenn Corney, director, IPD Occupiers, is here to help you navigate the complex minefield of environmental performance.
Disentangling the green agenda S
ustainability has become the issue that will not go away. From property development, refurbishment and – ultimately – corporate boardrooms, an increasing social and legal
responsibility lies on the shoulders of property tenants to maintain their buildings in a sustainable way. Government intervention, combined with non-regulatory codes of best practice, has made for a minefield for corporate occupiers to get to grips with and they can be forgiven for feeling a little over awed when first addressing the complex mist of issues. The approach IPD takes is to first define and second to measure environmental performance. The IPD Environment Code, the second edition of which will be launched in September, aims to do exactly this and can be adopted as a model to disentangle the Green Agenda for corporate occupiers. The first issue here is terminology. Put
simply, sustainability is about balancing short- and long-term objectives, shareholder expectations, social
commitments as well as the ecology. While it may appear tempting to push these concerns to the bottom of the corporate agenda, particularly for employers burdened by cost-cutting pressures, this is a false economy. Crucially, IPD research shows that environmental management issues remains to be a focus for the vast majority of corporate property managers. There is a tangible change in emphasis among corporate property managers, towards greater financial prudence as well as a more pragmatic understanding at the rate at which progress – and ultimately savings – can be made. Sustainability is about approach, rather than pure investment. It is important that environmental management is not seen solely as a risk management issue. A web-search of real estate articles on the environment highlights the current focus on (minimum) regulatory requirement initiatives such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC). It is important, however, that property managers grasp this issue as a valuable
The IPD Environment Code was created as a free-to-use tool for property managers to be able to define a core set of environmental performance data with which to drive improvement.
means of adding competitive advantage to their business. Environmental management standards such as ISO 14001 ask organisations to identify the right balance between profit and greater sustainability – and make a commitment. These aims, however, should not be seen as opposed to one another. The harmony of balancing profit and sustainability is exemplified by an IPD study into the university sector, which identified that one of the most pressing issues was the ability to keep up with the maintenance backlog on the estate. In other words, universities are concerned with the financial sustainability of the real estate solution. A recent study by IPD on behalf of the
UK Government identified that improving space utilisation accounts for 70% of the improvement in the carbon emissions per occupant. In other words, less space will reduce the environmental impact of the organisation, as well as reducing the ongoing running costs. This highlights the importance of not just looking at environmental issues in isolation.
www.pm-select.co.uk l september 2010 l Property Management Select l 23
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