Decarbonising our leased properties
The Climate Action Strategy has established a Leased Properties project to look at reducing emissions from the properties the City of London Corporation's tenanted commercial and residential buildings.
We are committed to achieving net zero by 2040 across our value chain (Scope 3 emissions). This includes emissions from the operations and use of our leased buildings, which are out of our control. The City Corporation is responsible for some of Central London's landmarks and historic buildings; therefore, we will be preparing those buildings for the next one hundred years through a project to decarbonise and improve energy efficiency of our leased properties.
To achieve this, we will:
- Improve energy efficiency.
- Comply with energy efficiency regulations.
- Develop new 'green lease' agreements containing clauses to ensure tenant responsibility for environmental performance.
- Collaborate with tenants to achieve shared goals, improving satisfaction and long-term valuation.
- Monitor and report on improving performance by establishing a comprehensive programme to monitor energy consumption.
The work to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon across our leased properties will interface with our building Design Standard and Resilient Buildings projects to ensure sustainable considerations are made at every stage of a building’s lifecycle. This is so we achieve consistent outcomes to efficiently meet our net zero buildings targets.
We have conducted Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) surveys and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) assessments at over 150 properties. The results have helped us to design an Operation Plan that feeds into the Investment Strategy as well as identifying risks, costs and key milestones required for major refurbishments.
The Operation Plan will help us create a pathway to improving our assets to an EPC rating of B by 2030 and reducing emissions to meet net zero by 2040.
We have identified a series of measures to successfully deliver the Operation Plan, reduce our emissions and improve energy efficiency across our leased properties. Some of these measures include;
- Major refurbishments to buildings, for example to improve energy efficiency, including the provision of low carbon heating and cooling, improved LED lighting and fabric improvements.
- A smart metering strategy to improve energy consumption monitoring.
- ‘Green leases’ to contain a series of additional provisions that oblige landlords and tenants to manage, reduce and improve the environmental impact and performance of a building.
- Developing an environmental due diligence checklist for new building acquisitions.