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Britain's biggest property chief offers green commitment

Francis Salway, president of the British Property Federation (BPF), and chief executive of Land Securities, Britain’s biggest property firm, has today said that he is committed to greening existing buildings, adding that the downturn is forcing business occupiers to go green and cut energy use.

Speaking at MIPIM in Cannes, Salway said:

“There is a lot of discussion as to whether the green agenda will be forced to take a back seat in the current economic downturn. The opposite is the case. We are working with a number of major occupiers to help them understand their current energy use in our buildings and take steps to reduce it.

“The property industry has long known that one of the inefficiencies in the use of buildings has been the potential gap between base build and the occupiers’ fit out. Therefore, an open engagement between building owner and occupier can only be helpful in terms of efficient energy use.

“What we do know from earlier downturns when there were higher energy costs is businesses naturally set up schemes to see how they can reduce their energy usage. We believe that this principle is behind a lot of the recent initiatives by occupiers to work with building owners to try and obtain a greater level of efficiency.”

For interviews or more information call the BPF’s head of media Andrew Teacher on +44 7841 732 194 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +44 7841 732 194      end_of_the_skype_highlighting / ateacher@bpf.org.uk.