Landlord GPE publishes ambitious net zero targets

London property group Great Portland Estates (GPE) has updated its ‘Roadmap to Net Zero’ eco manifesto to include ambitious new carbon reduction targets and revised timescales.

GPE, which owns retail properties across Mayfair, Finsbury, Fitzrovia, Soho and Marylebone in London, said the updated roadmap was in response to what it calls “the increasing impact of global climate change, and the carbon reductions necessary to decarbonise the built environment”.

First launched in 2020, its original roadmap incorporated 60 percent of its footprint and envisaged a plan to reduce its carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030, before offsetting the balance to net zero.

Its new ‘Net Zero 2.0’ plan incorporates the whole of its carbon footprint to ensure it is more closely aligned with the requirements of the SBTi Net Zero Carbon Standard and CRREM trajectories.

This includes “more ambitious” absolute emissions targets for Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, as it looks to reduce its emissions by 42 percent by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040, from its 2023 baseline.

It has also added “more challenging” embodied carbon and energy intensity reduction targets to reduce its embodied carbon by 52 percent, from its 2020 baseline, and reduce its energy intensity by 47 percent by 2030, from its 2016 baseline.

In addition, the plan includes new customer engagement and supply chain engagement targets to support faster Scope 3 emissions reductions; a new commitment to remove gas-fired boilers entirely from its buildings by 2030 “to ensure that all energy consumed at our buildings is fossil fuel free,” and an increase of its Internal Carbon Price from 95 pounds per tonne to 150 pounds per tonne.

Janine Cole, sustainability and social impact director at Great Portland Estates, said in a statement: “In updating our Roadmap to Net Zero, we have increased the ambition and scope of our net zero targets. We now know that if we are to reduce our emissions in line with climate science, we must reach nearly zero before offsetting the balance. Our updated roadmap now covers 100 percent of our carbon footprint and an absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions reduction target of 90 percent before becoming a net zero carbon business by 2040.

“We do not underestimate the challenge ahead and will need to be innovative, working in partnership with our entire value chain, embracing technology as it evolves, whilst further integrating the principles of the circular economy as we create the workspaces of tomorrow.”