OWNER & OCCUPIER ENGAGEMENT

Kathryn Barber, Sustainability Lead, GPE: “Collaboration between building owners and occupiers is essential for the industry to decarbonise. The updated Green Lease Toolkit will help engagement on sustainability from the outset and in turn set a new industry standard for what constitutes a green lease. This guidance will ultimately support owners and occupiers to jointly meet their sustainability goals.”

Carl Brooks, Global Head of ESG, CBRE Property Management: "The publication of this updated toolkit reflects the evolution in our understanding of the need for collaboration between property owners, managers, and occupiers.  Having a standardised approach to the drafting of green clauses for inclusion in lease provisions will improve adoption, implementation, and ultimately accelerate the achievement of sustainability in our sector."

To successfully deliver sustainable buildings will require more than a green lease being signed. Driven by a desire to align around sustainability objectives, the leasing process should be underpinned by a mutually beneficial, productive and collaborative owner-occupier relationship - fostering a true partnership built on trust and transparency is fundamental. Clearly, in areas such as data sharing, a lack of willingness to be transparent is a major barrier to success. Successful owner and occupier engagement on sustainability, offers a win win for both parties:  

  • Property Owners: Many building owners have commitments to sustainability, with one such example being the BBP Climate Commitment. This commitment requires signatories to publish net zero carbon pathways and delivery plans, disclose the energy performance of their assets and develop comprehensive climate resilience strategies. It has an overreaching objective of delivering net zero buildings by 2050 incorporating both direct and indirect investments, operational and embodied carbon and Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. The scope of the commitment makes it one of the most ambitious commitments that property owners can adopt.  
  • Property Occupiers: Many occupiers have also signed up to sustainability commitments such as the Science Based Targets Initiative or have embedded sustainability into their core purpose through initiatives such as BCorp accreditation.  The extent to which these commitments specifically reference the impacts associated with their occupation of property varies, but they are a good indication of a commitment to leadership in sustainability that green leases can help to support. 

In addition to enabling owners and occupiers to meet their sustainability commitments, Green leases offer a wide range of benefits for both parties, which can be amplified through effective dialogue and practical initiatives that support the ‘intent’ of the legal clauses contained within a lease.   

The BBP’s thought leadership research identified opportunities for unlocking potential for owner and occupier collaboration on sustainability.

The BBP’s Owner and Occupier Forum provides a neutral space for owners and occupiers to come together and align on sustainability. Members of the Forum work together to share knowledge and develop practical tools for engagement in focused topic groups, for example around data sharing. Together, Forum Members face difficult challenges and work towards shared solutions.
Based on our engagement with owners and occupiers through the Forum, here are 10 ‘top tips’ for successful owner and occupier sustainability engagement:

  • Start early – ensure you have the right people in the room at the right time
  • Be collaborative – listen and engage with humility
  • Identify objectives and seek alignment on goals and intent
  • Be clear on the mutual benefits 
  • Identify knowledge gaps and upskill
  • Measure Performance and introduce incentives
  • Face the difficult conversations about costs together
  • Adopt a systemic approach across the leasing life cycle
  • Share your case studies to support market transformation
  • Join the BBP’s owner and occupier engagement forum

Get involved: 

Read:

The BBP has a wide range of practical tools to support the delivery of better buildings, of relevance to owner-occupier collaboration are:

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