Retail giant will launch strategy at next week’s Ecobuild conference
Marks & Spencer has partnered with landlords’ alliance Better Buildings Partnership to launch a ‘green leasing’ strategy for its property portfolio.
The strategy will see green clauses on issues like waste management and environmental performance written in to leases for 70 Marks & Spencer stores across the UK.
The stores are owned by British Land, Canary Wharf Group, Hammerson, Hermes Real Estate, Henderson Global Investors, Land Securities, LaSalle Investment Management, Legal & General Property and PRUPIM.
The strategy will be officially launched at sustainability conference Ecobuild – run by Building’s publisher UBM - next week.
Keith Bugden, executive director of the Better Building Partnership said: “The BBP has been developing ways to break down landlord/tenant barriers since its inception five years ago.
“Our industry leading work on green leases, including the publication of our Green Lease Toolkit, has paved the way for this exciting new initiative and I’m delighted that the hard work and commitment of our members has resulted in such a significant breakthrough.
“We hope of course that this is just the start and that other commercial tenants will see the benefits to be gained from such a partnership.”
Clem Constantine, director of property at M&S, said: “Unfortunately, big carbon reductions from the UK’s building stock cannot come only from shiny new eco stores. 70 per cent of current commercial buildings will still exist in 2050, so if we are genuinely going to tackle the problem we have to invest in eco solutions for existing buildings.
“Currently it can be difficult for landlords and tenants to work together when it comes to a building’s environmental performance, particularly for older leases. There’s often no real structure for measurement, incentives or sharing of goals.
“Green leasing changes this situation as it provides the framework within which both can work together. And both will benefit, a store with a reduced environmental impact and lower costs is more marketable for landlords and more cost effective for tenants to occupy – a genuine win, win.”
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