GREEN LEASE CLAUSES

This section is the backbone of the toolkit and is focused on stakeholders involved in the negotiation of lease terms. For each clause it includes:

• Statements of Intent – an overview of what each clause is designed to achieve, providing flexibility for the owner and occupier to draft the specific wording of the clauses appropriately, but with a shared understanding of the intent behind them. 
• Legal Clauses – providing the specific wording that can be incorporated within the lease these can be copied and utilized directly or amended whilst seeking to maintain the ‘intent’ behind each clause. The takes into account the Model Commercial Lease Framework, making the leases easy to integrate into standard leasing practice. For some clauses there are light, medium and dark green options, enabling owners and occupiers to reflect their sustainability ambitions in both general terms and specific to the asset for which the lease is being negotiated (e.g. age and nature of the Building, whether it is single or multi-let, and the proposed use of the Premises).
• Drafting Notes – providing guidance and notes on drafting the clauses, highlighting where the drafting may need to be adapted for specific circumstances, types of lease or assets. They enable the owner and occupier to consider where they are in their green lease journey to frame the clauses appropriately.

The clauses have been drafted to make their adoption as straight-forward as possible:

• Clauses have been aligned to fit easily into the Model Commercial Lease – making the green clauses easier to integrate into standard leases.
• The clauses can be used across a wide range of asset types - over time the BBP will increase sector-specific guidance as common and best practice emerges and examples of successful clauses can be signposted. 
• The clauses have been reviewed for applicability across the UK, downloads of legal clauses for Scotland and Ireland can be found here. 

The draft clauses and accompanying notes are a guide to the key issues. They are not designed to be a substitute for legal advice. When considering a new lease or on lease renewal, the BBP suggests that parties discuss with their advisers the scope and ambition of their lease and the extent to which they will adopt and/or amend the draft clauses provided in this toolkit.

The idea of “statements of intent” came from the BBP Green Lease Toolkit Steering Committee who referred to the Green Lease Leaders Landlords Reference Guide. This is a US Guide for a rating system for green leases. Here you will see at the top of each section it includes an “intent” section.  Sometimes these can be quite broad. For each clause the Green Lease toolkit Legal Working Group produced is a statement on a suggested minimum level of acceptable green lease clause which reflects what should be generally achievable with reasonable ambition. 

It is possible that sustainability and environmental issues will also be addressed in other documents which affect the relationship between the parties, such as any Tenant’s fit out handbook, Landlord’s regulations or Building handbook which the Tenant may covenant to observe. The parties should ensure that the draft clauses are consistent with these documents.