Corporate Responsibility

British Land’s second Corporate Responsibility Report, which has full details of British Land’s corporate responsibility activities in 2003, has been widely circulated. Copies are available from:

Claudine Blamey
Corporate Responsibility Executive
Tel: +44 (0)207 467 3455
Fax: +44 (0)207 467 2869
claudine.blamey@britishland.com

Cover of British Land’s second Corporate Responsibility Report

The Corporate Responsibility Report is also available on the British Land website www.britishland.com.

The business benefits of managing corporate responsibility effectively are now well understood. By building good relationships we gain the trust of tenants, suppliers and opinion formers, as well as local communities and local authorities. This impacts positively on development plans and makes properties more attractive to existing and potential tenants and their employees. It helps to increase rental income and capital value and enhances the company’s reputation and reduces risk, demonstrating that the range of issues associated with the development and management of property are understood properly and managed.

Board responsibility for the management of corporate responsibility issues lies with John Weston Smith, Chief Operating Officer and Director who is chairman of the Corporate Responsibility Committee. Adrian Penfold, Head of Planning and Environment and Claudine Blamey, Corporate Responsibility Executive manage British Land’s Corporate Responsibility. The Committee sets policy and oversees the company’s corporate responsibility strategy. Two Review Panels, one for environmental issues and the other for workplace, community and marketplace issues, are composed of representatives from business units within the company. These include Meadowhall, Broadgate Estates, Eastgate Shopping Centre, Blythe Valley Park and Peacocks Shopping Centre. They are responsible for implementing the objectives and targets set by the Corporate Responsibility Committee.

The Report details British Land’s performance on the targets set in 2003 and has a comprehensive section on the targets for 2004, which were developed following extensive discussions with a range of stakeholders.

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Further progress
British Land’s latest review of performance in 2003 focuses on its key properties. These include Regent’s Place and Broadgate in London and Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield.

At Regent’s Place, we continued to work on a range of initiatives with representatives of the local community through the West Euston Partnership. The regeneration of Regent’s Place has seen the completion of a new public square, the addition of a fine collection of public artworks and the introduction of a public events programme.

At Meadowhall Shopping Centre, the opening of The Source, a dedicated training and learning centre, underlined the company’s commitment to helping the local community by providing opportunities for individuals to learn, train and work. New training opportunities for shopping centre staff were also introduced, as was a range of successful waste management initiatives.

At Broadgate in the heart of the City of London, the £35 million Building on Success’ programme continued to enhance the public spaces, with the completion of Finsbury Avenue Square and improved entrances, signage and lighting. The Broadgate Live programme of cultural and sporting events, and the Vicinitee website help to ensure that tenants and public alike enjoy these public spaces to the full.

British Land shopping centres, located in Basildon, Cambridge, East Kilbride, Woking, Stockton-on-Tees and elsewhere, introduced a wide range of corporate responsibility initiatives. These included new learning centres and environmental management systems.

Since the publication of the Report we have made good progress with our 2004 targets. Our focus has been on managing environmental and social impacts throughout the lifetime of the property, from master-planning, design, detailed planning and construction through to day-to-day management.

Building lifecycle management
For design and construction we are developing the Sustainability Brief. The brief will define the required process, specifications, guidance and responsibilities for each development stage. We have consulted with construction experts, architects, engineers and British Land staff at two workshops. The brief will be published later in 2004.

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Working with customers, partners and suppliers
To manage supply chain issues effectively within the development process British Land has been working with other property and construction companies to establish guidelines for supply chain management and apply them to procurement practices on development projects.

Effective energy management
British Land has been awarded funding by the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management Programme to develop benchmarks of energy performance for the property portfolio using the Resources Portal. The Portal is part of the company’s extranet which is available to authorised users, primarily managing agents who record resource use data for all multi-let properties. The project has enabled us to create a map of carbon use, to highlight the level of control the company has, and to demonstrate how the British Land resource monitoring and targeting system can be used to reduce CO2 emissions.

Benchmarking surveys

Dow Jones Sustainability Index
Dow Jones Sustainability Indices listed British Land as the world Financial Services Sector Leader.

Property Environment Group (PEG) British Land was ranked in joint first place, among the four highest performing companies in the 2004 PEG Survey.

BiE
British Land moved up from fourth position in the 2002 BiE Index to third position in the 2003 BiE Index.

FTSE4Good
Following the September 2003 Index Review, British Land has once again successfully met the required FTSE4Good global corporate responsibility criteria and has been awarded membership of the FTSE4Good Index Series by the FTSE4Good Policy Committee.

Recent Corporate Responsibility Awards
British Land was the winner of the Energy Management and Conservation category of the Liveable City Awards 2004.

The new Triton Square at Regent’s Place, Euston Road, London won a Civic Trust Award in March 2004. These awards are given to projects that reach the highest standards in terms of their design and their contribution to their environment or community.

The Source at Meadowhall in Sheffield was the winner of the International Council of Shopping Centres Marketing Awards 2004 in the Community category.

British Land’s in-house Awards
In 2003 British Land launched a Corporate Responsibility Awards Scheme for all Company staff. The awards scheme encourages staff to become involved in local activities, projects and events such as sports for children and local wildlife projects. The winners of the awards received a certificate acknowledging their work at a lunch with Chairman John Ritblat.

British Land’s Corporate Responsibility Policy is available at www.britishland.com.

Just tick the box…

The arrival of another doorstep-sized CSR questionnaire is greeted by scenes of wild elation.

Illustration by Gerald Hoffnung

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