Like many a chief executive, Canary Wharf Group’s Shobi Khan doesn’t always manage to switch off while on holiday. A trip to Cornwall late last year gave him a chance to visit the Eden Project, the clay pit-turned-tropical-biome that has attracted more than 22m visitors over the past two decades – but Khan was there in a professional capacity.
Today, CWG announced a partnership with the Eden Project charity to rethink and revamp Canary Wharf’s public realm and waterways, and their contribution to biodiversity. The goal, as CWG puts it, is nothing less than making a “blueprint” for sustainable cities.
“We have created an extraordinary environment at Canary Wharf,” Khan tells EG. “We have the restaurants, the residential and schools. We have universities coming here. We have world-class office space and transportation links. And we are also a leader in sustainability, so partnering with Eden, which is world-renowned in terms of biodiversity and its impact on nature and people, means we get best practices from them that help us continue to try to make urban spaces interact with nature and with people.”
The start of the tie-up will see CWG and the Eden Project – which will make Canary Wharf its new London home – develop a “green spine” running through the centre of the estate, comprising new parks and gardens, bridges, boardwalks and floating pontoons. The two parties have been working on the scheme for “well over a year”, Khan says, with each visiting the other’s sites regularly.
Khan says the company has never been a slouch when it comes to greening the estate – “They say the Crossrail roof garden is like a mini Eden Project,” he says – and focusing on sustainability. CWG has bought all of its electricity from renewable sources for a decade now and has sent no waste to landfill since 2009.
But the new, Glenn Howells Architects-designed plans are nonetheless ambitious. Proposals for the initial phase are set to be lodged soon. Khan hopes to have construction under way later this year and for the “spine” to be open by the time the estate launches its annual Winter Lights display.
And there will be more to come. Phase two will be South Dock, where the group wants to create a boardwalk giving access to kayaking and other activities. Phase three will be a revamp of Montgomery Square. “And we have other areas of the estate where we would like to continue with this endeavour,” the chief executive adds.
There will be some hard graft ahead given the number of vested interests involved, but Khan is hopeful that all will come together for the greater good.
“It’s a complex project,” he says. “Transport for London owns the land outside the Jubilee station. We have to partner with Canal & River Trust, because of their ownership of the waterway, and work with the borough in terms of planning. So it’s a complex task to get all these different parties aligned in their vision to make something that not only works physically, but that also can work technically. But everyone sees the vision of creating a biodiverse environment and having nature work with people. Everyone rallies to that point.”
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