Green matters

How sincere is all the talk about developing environmentally friendly buildings?

Sustainability: everyone’s mouthing this buzzword from leisure industry leaders to captains of the commercial property fraternity.

It is easy to be cynical about saving the planet but it will take more than celebrity chef Jamie Oliver installing wind turbines on the roof of his new Cornish Fifteen restaurant to head off disaster for future generations.

A start has been made, however. Although many – arguably – pay lip-service to sustainability, more and more column inches are taken up with the issue. Green matters, once on the fringe, are becoming more mainstream. Those property developers and other industry players that do not rise to what Asda chief executive Andy Bond recently called “the new black”, could find themselves seriously in the red in the longer term. Asda has declared its intention to host a sustainability conference for Britain’s retail chief executives, government representatives and others.

The cynic might say sustainability initiatives are just another way for supermarkets to get the edge over their rivals.
Supermarkets have much to prove against a backdrop of accusations that they are turning our nation’s towns into clones of each other.

But while many might currently sign up to the sustainability bandwagon as part of their marketing strategy in an attempt to show a moral face, sustainability is fast becoming serious business.
Many of the world’s top banks committed themselves in June 2003 not to lend money to any business whose plans could impact negatively on the environment or community.

They signed up to a voluntary set of guidelines, known as the Equator Principles, developed by the banks for managing social and environmental issues related to the financing of development projects. These were revised this summer.

The London Development Agency, for example, has a Health and Sustainability Advisory Group to make strategic recommendations about integration of health and sustainability development into its projects.

It has been involved in monitoring the sustainability of the Thames Gateway scheme to deliver sustainable communities.

The bandwagon will continue to roll faster and faster as we increasingly understand the damage wrought to this beautiful planet of ours by a triumvirate of overconsumption, greed and ignorance.

British Land has stated its aim is to construct sustainable buildings while maintaining commercial viability, long-term profitability and enhancement of the company’s reputation.

Its statement recognises that sustainable development does not need to mean commercial suicide.

Back in July 2001, Land Securities laid claim to being the first property company to publish an environmental report, recognising the opportunities to minimise environmental impact from design and construction, operation, demolition and head office activities.

Arup is renowned for they way is has helped its clients incorporate sustainability into everything they do.

However, for every good example that can be cited there are many more that would not know sustainability if it hit them across the face with a breeze block.

Recent sustainability initiatives are all very laudable but the words ‘horse has bolted’ tends to come to mind when organisations wax lyrical about saving the Earth.

Still, better late than never, as they say.