From retail bear to climate champion. What a difference a week makes. I was definitely less than cheerful on these pages last week, and while I’ll admit I’m still team bear on many things, this week I’d like to be more hopeful.
Hopeful and grateful.
Today EG is launching the latest in a string of initiatives of which I am really proud and am genuinely delighted that we, as a part of the real estate world, can have a significant and positive influence on.
Working with the Better Building Partnership as our ambassador on climate change and with partners EVORA Global, Hammerson and Drees & Sommer, we have launched the EG Sustainability Hub. A place where we will be sharing the best ideas, practical advice and learning on sustainability. A place where we will be bringing the real estate industry together to tackle the biggest issue facing the world today.
The industry is well aware of the impact that real estate has on the environment and companies have been pledging to reduce their carbon emissions and have been utilising technologies to save energy for a number of years. But today, a group of more than 20 real estate leaders have signed a commitment that pledges to take real action and to share and showcase how they plan to get to net zero.
It is a challenging commitment to sign up to and it will take real effort, real investment and complete buy-in from business to achieve. But as signatories told me this week, business (and let’s face it, life in general) will be more challenging if we don’t commit to stopping global warming. Shareholders are increasingly demanding that businesses take sustainability and social value seriously, and the next generation – as shown by today’s global climate strikes – will not tolerate a world today in which we don’t do something meaningful to protect the world tomorrow.
And you don’t even have to take my word for it. Take the word of Josie Price, the 10-year-old daughter of Palmer Capital’s Alex Price.
“The adults aren’t trying hard enough and everyone says that it will be fine, but we are the ones who will have to deal with this,” she told us. “We are more aware about the issues as we know that when it gets to our generation it will be too late.
“Adults need to use less of everything and a little less here and there should be enough if everyone does it. In buildings we need to use less electricity. We need to use less energy to make houses. At my school we don’t have air conditioning and it is pretty much always fine. We have radiators but we only use them for a couple of months a year. We only use lights in the winter afternoons. We also only use reusable boxes and we recycle paper. Why can’t other buildings try to do the same? If they did, the world would be a better place to live for generations to come.”
If we as an industry don’t do something now, the places and spaces we build may not be able to handle the influx of people forced from their homes by fire, drought and flood or may, indeed, be underwater themselves. MSCI data, released this week, showed that some 54% of assets in Reading, Berkshire, were at risk of flood, representing a whopping £900m of property.
But as you will see in the pages of EG today and on our online Sustainability Hub this industry is doing something today and I for one am hopeful that it will make a difference and am grateful that we at EG get to do our bit to help the industry deliver on this vital commitment.
To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
