Members of the Better Buildings Partnership, a collaboration of major commercial property owners, have sent a clear message on the role real estate can play in meeting the Government’s carbon reduction targets, supporting the COP21 Paris Agreement and improving energy security in the UK.

Each year, in the largest voluntary initiative of its kind, BBP members provide energy consumption data for their UK properties which is then used to create publically available benchmarks for the industry – the BBP Real Estate Environmental Benchmark (REEB).

Using the data gathered to produce REEB, the BBP has today released the report Real Estate Environmental Benchmark 2015 – A 5 year journey. The report provides a retrospective assessment of how BBP members’ portfolios have performed over the past five years, demonstrating what the members have achieved in energy and carbon intensity reductions.

Key highlights include:

• 22% improvement in energy efficiency of the BBP members' portfolio      
• 28% improvement in energy efficiency for offices   
• 20% reduction in like-for-like energy consumption             
• Over £15 million savings in energy costs               
• 58,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions saved

BBP Programme Director, Sarah Ratcliffe said: “We are extremely proud to be sharing, for the first time, performance trends derived from the REEB data. The report highlights the significant progress made by BBP members in reducing energy consumption and emissions across their portfolios. Together, they have shown industry leadership in what can be achieved. If such savings can be replicated across the rest of the industry, then this would go a long way in supporting the UK’s carbon reduction targets and reducing the UK’s energy demand” 

Chair of the BBP and Head of Sustainability at Hammerson, Louise Ellison said: “Reliable benchmarks of performance in use for commercial buildings are essential to driving efficiencies across our portfolios. REEB is rapidly being understood as the industry standards and is already supporting some of the biggest landlords in improving our environmental performance. I am very proud of what the BBP has achieved so far through this initiative”.

Click here to access the full report.