On Tuesday 13th June, AREF and the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) hosted a panel discussion and Q&A on the challenges and solutions to addressing carbon emissions associated with tenant activities in buildings. It was great to see the level of engagement from the room, and to discuss this issue with a focus on solutions and success stories, including the example set by BBP / AREF member Fiera Real Estate and their tenant Meggitt, a company specialising in components for the aerospace, defence and selected energy market.
After an introduction from CBRE’s Sam Carson, Frankie Demetriades of Fiera Real Estate shared the projects and initiatives which have worked at Fiera in engaging occupiers including a tenant engagement programme, collaboration on renewable energy projects, and green leases. Frankie outlined how these are supporting better landlord-tenant relationships and better data coverage for Fiera in managing its tenants. This was followed by a presentation from Oliver Light of Accenture on ‘six rules of thumb’ in developing a tenant engagement strategy, highlighting where things can go wrong and how to avoid the pitfalls (with several analogous drawn between tenant engagement and dating!).
We then heard from Matthew Liquorish of Meggitt on his experiences in developing a shared approach to sustainability with their landlord Fiera, focussing on a manufacturing site in Loughborough. This helpfully showed that landlords and tenants can use a shared language in delivering ESG goals and work together to deliver mutual value provided this is based on honest and open discussion.
We then heard from the BBP’s Adam Baranowski and Laura Noctor-King. Adam noted that the Fiera case study was a good example of the way that the market is transforming at the moment, with the drivers of investor expectations, building rating and certification schemes and the positive impact of success stories emboldening landlords to open up channels with their tenants. Laura provided attendees with a summary of the upcoming refresh of the BBP’s widely used Green Lease Toolkit, due to be launched in the Autumn. This is being updated and improved with input from building owners, occupiers and legal experts to reflect best practice in creating green leases.
Finally we opened up into a panel discussion and questions from the floor, which touched on the topics of Government regulation, where to draw the line in defining Scope 3, and how costs should be shared between landlords and tenants in implementing data collection and decarbonisation programmes.
Below you can watch the recording, listen to the audio podcast on your device and download the slides.
Many thanks to CBRE for hosting and to the speakers:
- Moderator: Sam Carson, Head of Sustainability, Valuations & Advisory Services at CBRE
- Adam Baranowski, Climate Change Programme Lead at Better Buildings Partnership
- Frankie Demetriades, Associate Director ESG at Fiera Real Estate
- Oliver Light, Principal Director, Direct of Real Estate at Carbon Intelligence/Accenture
- Matthew Liquorish, EHS Manager - Polymers & UK Composites, Meggit
- Laura Noctor-King, Head of Sustainability, Better Buildings Partnership
View the Recording:
View the Slides:
Click here or the image below to view the slides.
Listen to the Podcast (audio only):
View the Photos:
If you have any enquries, please do not hesitate to contact AREF on info@aref.org.uk.