Company Announcements

20 September 2019

GPE announces participation in the Better Buildings Partnership's Climate Change Commitment and continued success in ESG indices

We are pleased to announce that we are a signatory to a ground breaking Climate Change Commitment launched by members of the Better Buildings Partnership. The commitment is designed to tackle the growing risks of climate change through the delivery of net zero carbon real estate portfolios.

The Commitment aligns with our strategy to transition to a net zero carbon business and requires us to:

·      disclose our progress towards our net zero carbon pathway, including whole building performance and occupier activities;

·      publicly disclose the energy performance of our portfolio; and

·      develop a comprehensive climate change resilience strategy for our portfolio.

This builds on our revised energy and carbon targets that we announced earlier in the year, namely:

·      to achieve a 40% reduction in energy intensity and at least a 69% reduction in carbon intensity across our portfolio by 2030;

·      for all new build developments completed from 2030 to be net zero carbon; and

·      to set out our approach and timescale to become a net zero carbon business.

We are also pleased to announce continued strong performance across a number of leading sustainability and ESG indices:

Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark ("GRESB")

·      With a score of 86 we were placed in the top 20% of over 900 global participating portfolios in the GRESB annual sustainability performance index

·      We were awarded a five-star rating for the fourth consecutive year

·      We were also delighted to be awarded Grade A for the quality of our public disclosure.

European Public Real Estate Association ("EPRA")

GPE won a Gold Award, for the sixth consecutive year, for reporting in accordance with EPRA's European Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations (sBPR). The EPRA sBPR is intended to raise the standards and consistency of sustainability reporting for listed real estate companies across Europe.

Janine Cole, Head of Sustainability said "We are proud to participate in the Climate Change Commitment and delighted that our efforts on ESG continue to be recognised in the major indices. Our success depends both on our ability to integrate ESG across the whole of our business and the enthusiasm of our team to lead on these issues. The fact that 95% of our team will be taking part in our second community day next week, spending more than 900 hours supporting community causes, is testament to their commitment". 

Contacts:

Great Portland Estates plc

Toby Courtauld                                   Chief Executive                                       020 7647 3042

Nick Sanderson                                  Finance and Operations Director            020 7647 3034

Janine Cole                                        Head of Sustainability                              020 7647 3031

Finsbury 

James Murgatroyd                                                                                              020 7251 3801

Gordon Simpson