A better future for our buildings

Husblind. It’s a Norwegian adjective that, roughly translated, describes something along the lines of one who is no longer able to see their home, their home environment objectively. It’s normally used when describing our natural tendency to gradually stop paying attention to the details of the daily environment around us, typically at home, until we become oblivious to it.

In some way, one could say that we’re blind to the environmental impact of the buildings we spend our days in. We spend our entire lives in them yet seldom take the time to realise the scale of their environmental impact, and what it takes to build and power them. Carbon emissions from the built environment around the world account for more than all global transport emissions combined – itself a widely recognised cause of climate change. In fact, over a third of all energy-related carbon emissions come from our offices, homes, schools, hospitals, shops and infrastructure. We must open our eyes to the role that our buildings have to play in tackling climate change.

Rightly, the business world is being challenged to assess its climate risk and drastically reduce its environmental impact. Under pressure from their employees, customers, shareholders and the population at large, most large corporates have targeted carbon emissions reduction as a top priority and are setting themselves ambitious climate goals. Professional services firms taking stock of their carbon footprint realise that most of their material environmental impact indeed comes from the real estate they occupy. Hence, developers and owners of these spaces like Landsec need to work collaboratively with their customers so that both can meet their sustainability goals, whilst also providing healthier and more sustainable places that enable customers to run their businesses successfully.

At Landsec, we understand that in order to limit the environmental impact our buildings are responsible for, sustainable design must be an integral part of every stage of the project’s lifecycle – from the early sketches through to construction and efficient operation. Construction carbon emissions are of particular importance for new buildings, where our indirect supply chain emissions (all the way from the extraction of resources to the manufacturing and assembly processes) can represent up to half of all carbon emissions for the entire life of a building. It’s also essential we make the most of the assets currently standing, renovate them where needed into state of the art, efficient spaces fit for modern purposes and resilient to the future to come.

We were delighted when the opportunity arose to be involved in the #BuildingABetterFuture series launched by the World Green Building Council and produced by BBC Story Works. The series is showcasing one of our most exciting developments in partnership with architects Bennetts Associates: Timber Square.

Timber Square is a pioneering project for us because it embodies our commitment to sustainable design and how we see the role that modern construction must play in addressing the climate challenge. Located in the heart of London’s Southbank, it was a commercial printworks built in the 1950s. As part of our focus to minimise carbon emissions, we are keeping as much of that original structure standing as possible. Timber Square will also be built using low carbon construction materials, such as cross-laminated timber. There are many benefits to using timber but perhaps the most crucial is that it’s effectively a carbon-negative construction material: as trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, releasing back oxygen. On a commercial building of this scale, the use of timber as a construction material instead of traditionally used carbon-intensive concrete is a real breakthrough. Over 5,000 tonnes of carbon are stored in the floors of Timber Square. Finally, combined with a careful selection of the other construction materials to include recycled and locally sourced materials, our approach means we can meaningfully reduce the construction emissions from Timber Square to about half that of a traditional building. The building is also designed to be highly efficient in its operation and powered by clean energy.

As a company, we’re working our way towards net zero carbon by 2030. We are on track to meet our target of reducing our carbon emissions by 70% by 2030, in line with the 1.5°C Paris Agreement commitment. 100% of the electricity we use is sourced from renewable energy supplies, and 100% of the waste our buildings produce is diverted from landfill. All our developments make a significant contribution to improve the local biodiversity, supporting urban wildlife. All these objectives come together at Timber Square, alongside many more.

We’re facing an environmental crisis. We’re already seeing the disastrous effects of climate change affecting the world we live in today. On the trajectory we’re on, these impacts will only become more frequent, more damaging and more costly. With Timber Square, we want to demonstrate that we can design buildings differently to respond to this climate emergency. We know more remains to be done and we hope the Building A Better Future series will pave the way to many more boundary-pushing projects going forward.

The time for climate action is now.