We recently completed Norton Folgate, bringing vacant and underused buildings back into use while delivering new high quality, sustainable workspace.
Alex Colvin, Head of Development Leasing at British Land, reflects on sustainability achievements and challenges across the project – from retaining existing structures and materials, to achieving BREEAM Excellent in a Victorian warehouse.

Retaining and reusing as much as possible

One of the most exciting sustainability achievements at Norton Folgate – and the one getting the most engagement from customers – is the retention of existing buildings and heritage features. This directly connects to our efforts to cut embodied carbon – the emissions that come from putting buildings up.

Together with our design and construction partners, we’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to retain and reuse as much as possible. This includes lifting, cleaning and resetting 29,000 original cobbles, and individually assessing hundreds of timber joists. Retained façades include an Edwardian ‘arts and crafts’ terrace frontage and a Victorian warehouse. When detailed surveys found 15 Norton Folgate was no longer structurally sound, we carefully dismantled it brick by brick – salvaging over 20,000 bricks for reuse.

This all contributed to Norton Folgate’s low embodied footprint of 506kg CO₂e per sqm, outperforming industry benchmarks. It’s lovely that the process we went through to achieve this will live on in how customers use the buildings and that it’s opened up discussions with them on embodied carbon.

Achieving modern standards in heritage spaces

I am proud that we have managed to upgrade historic buildings, including a 100-year-old warehouse, into all-electric workspace, rated BREEAM Excellent and EPC A/B. All-electric is a big tick in the box for customers, with air source pumps for low carbon heating.

It's impressive, in a heritage setting, that the design team improved predicted operational efficiency to 73kWh per sqm, which is ahead of UKGBC’s 2025 target¹. We did everything possible to upgrade building fabric while keeping historic character, and integrated smart technology to optimise energy use. We’ll also source 100% renewable electricity via solar photovoltaics on site and REGO contracts.

Other key features include over 3,000 sq ft of green roofs to promote biodiversity and wellbeing, 550 cycle spaces to support active commutes, and rainwater harvesting to save mains water. Plus, as an accredited Living Wage Employer, we’re committed to paying everyone working on our behalf across Norton Folgate at least London Living Wages.

Reinvigorating a piece of city

Norton Folgate is a special place. We wanted it to feel like it had organically grown, rather than a single scheme landed in the area. So, we engaged four architects to give the different buildings their own style and personality: Stirling Prize winners AHMM, Stanton Williams, Morris + Company and DSDHA. The results show the value – reinvigorating a piece of city.

The historic character and impressive sustainability credentials of Norton Folgate have contributed to a range of companies taking space, including international law firm Reed Smith, who will be moving into their new headquarters this summer, Swiss high-performance sportswear brand On, and restaurant brands Kolamba and Xi Home.

We’re also on site creating 67,000 sq ft of work-ready, fitted, furnished & connected spaces ready for customers to walk into, which will be ready in the summer. Intrinsically, we’re doing that in a sustainable way too.

¹UKGBC base building energy target (NLA) 2020–2025.