Two decades on from the launch of our first Sustainability Brief, which led the industry and drove positive change, our latest update pushes new boundaries, as we work collaboratively to achieve the ambitious targets set out in our 2030 sustainability strategy: Greener Spaces, Thriving Places, Responsible Choices.

David Lockyer, Head of Development at British Land, and David Walker, Chief Operating Officer, reflect on the impact of earlier Briefs and discuss how our latest version will further accelerate progress.

Continually improving

David Walker: Our new Brief marks a significant step forward, with more demanding KPIs in a number of areas, including innovation, Real Living Wages, social impact, climate resilience and nature, as well as broad and stretching sustainability targets for logistics and science and technology projects. As we face global challenges, there’s no time to stand still. We’re already exploring a hit list of emerging opportunities with suppliers, consultants and manufacturers for our next update.

David Lockyer: This latest version of our award-winning Sustainability Brief continues to set industry-leading standards, as we advance progress on our 2030 targets – from halving embodied carbon intensity and reducing operational emissions by 75%, to directly enabling £200m of social and economic value and always paying Real Living Wages. This contributes to our leadership in international benchmarks, including GRESB, where we are ranked European Sector Leader for Standing Investments and Global Sector Leader for Development.

Driving progress for our customers

David Walker: As one of the UK’s largest property companies, we know that our customers increasingly want space with outstanding sustainability credentials and that our places thrive when our local communities also succeed. We have seen, over many years, the positive effect our collaboration can have.

David Lockyer: We have achieved so much in the 20 years since we launched our first Sustainability Brief – from advancing net zero carbon progress and delivering BREEAM Outstanding destinations, to supporting thousands of people into jobs. I look forward to even more progress in the coming years.

Innovating at scale and pace

David Lockyer: An important change in our new Brief is requiring innovation and ‘beyond best practice’ initiatives at all our places across all our pillars: Greener Spaces, Thriving Places, Responsible Choices. Where these are successful, we will then roll them out across our portfolio as appropriate. Innovation at scale and pace is essential to achieving our 2030 goals and beyond. We want our suppliers to come to us with bold ideas to push boundaries.

David Walker: Reflecting British Land’s status as an accredited Living Wage Employer, all our suppliers are now required to pay Real Living Wages to all regular employees at our places. This builds on our long track record of paying Real Living Wages to our own employees and to people working on our developments and our campuses.

Creating outstanding places

David Walker: We will continue to stretch our teams and supplier partners on our environmental, social and governance requirements throughout the property life cycle – creating outstanding places and working towards our ambitious sustainability goals. Together we can achieve more.

David Lockyer: To ensure a fair and inclusive journey to a resilient, net zero future, we encourage our supply chain to think about connections between environmental and social sustainability – from developing green skills through employment initiatives, to integrating regenerative design principles into our projects to create positive impacts on nature and people.

Download our Sustainability Brief for our Places

David Lockyer, Head of Development, British Land

David Walker, Chief Operating Officer, British Land