One of the challenges as a business can be improving your sustainability, especially in terms of your premises.
If you lease space and aren’t in a position to design and build your own offices or other facilities, it can be even harder to tick the sustainability boxes you’re looking for. To help businesses and investors hit sustainability targets with commercial property, the Better Buildings Partnership has launched a sustainability toolkit.
This particular resource is aimed specifically at investors in commercial property to help them make informed decisions about the buildings they’re putting money into and to remove some of the risks associated with this kind of investment where sustainability is concerned.
The aim is to provide information about issues that could affect an investment, set out the important questions that need to be asked during the due diligence process and encourage a standardised way of presenting and sharing information about sustainability features.
A range of experts in the sector have collaborated to produce the toolkit and are backing the resource.
Head of UK property transactions at Aberdeen Asset Management Robert Cass explained that the sustainability of a new building has implications beyond an owner’s ability to hit sustainability targets, noting it can also “have important implications for capital investment programmes, leasing and service charge arrangements”.
Last month Utility Dive suggested there are some simple and cost-effective retrofit activities that could improve the energy efficiency of older properties. One option could be to fit energy-saving window films to your glazing, as well as ensuring you’re using LED light bulbs.
