The UK’s largest commercial property company, Land Securities, has today joined RE100 and announced its commitment to being 100% powered by renewable electricity.
Land Securities has signed a new electricity contract and will be procuring 100% renewable electricity in all of its buildings from April 2016. The company is also exploring the possibility of fitting photovoltaics at its retail sites, in the hope of reducing its dependence on the grid and making long-term savings.
The move comes in arguably the most important year yet for climate action, ahead of crucial UN talks in December. Caroline Hill, Head of Sustainability at Land Securities, says in a blog: “We believe it is important for business leaders to show support for a global agreement in Paris and to demonstrate our commitment to working with others in our sector to transition to a low carbon world.”
Land Securities’ transition to being powered by renewable electricity matched with an effort to reduce its energy consumption across all of its sites – a priority for the company for many years. In 2014, it became the only large property company to have met the requirements for the ISO50001 energy management standard and has seen an 8% reduction in energy requirements from a 2013/2014 baseline.
Land Securities is the second real estate company to join RE100, after Germany-based alstria announced its decision earlier this year to become 100% powered by renewable electricity. The impact of these large property businesses committing to the campaign holds great potential as they are in a position to be able to lead by example and aid their tenants’ transition towards becoming ‘100% renewable’, thereby bringing further influential brands to RE100 and showcasing the strong business case for renewables.
37 companies have now joined RE100. They include: Alstria, Autodesk, BT Group, Commerzbank, DSM, Elion Resources Group, Formula E, Givaudan, Goldman Sachs, H&M, IKEA Group, Infosys, J. Safra Sarasin, Johnson & Johnson, Kingspan, KPN, Land Securities, Marks & Spencer, Mars Incorporated, Nestlé, Nike, Inc., Philips, Procter & Gamble, Proximus, RELX Group, Salesforce, SAP, SGS, Starbucks, Steelcase, Swiss RE, UBS, Unilever, Vaisala, Voya Financial, Walmart and YOOX Group.