Retail giant will launch strategy at next week鈥檚 Ecobuild conference
Marks & Spencer has partnered with landlords鈥� alliance Better 黑洞社区s Partnership to launch a 鈥榞reen leasing鈥� 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 鈥� run by 黑洞社区鈥檚 publisher UBM - next week.
Keith Bugden, executive director of the Better 黑洞社区 Partnership said: 鈥淭he BBP has been developing ways to break down landlord/tenant barriers since its inception five years ago.
鈥淥ur 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鈥檓 delighted that the hard work and commitment of our members has resulted in such a significant breakthrough.
鈥淲e 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.鈥�
Clem Constantine, director of property at M&S, said: 鈥淯nfortunately, big carbon reductions from the UK鈥檚 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.
鈥淐urrently it can be difficult for landlords and tenants to work together when it comes to a building鈥檚 environmental performance, particularly for older leases. There鈥檚 often no real structure for measurement, incentives or sharing of goals.
鈥淕reen 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 鈥� a genuine win, win.鈥�
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