Managing land & buildings
Why is this area important to embedding sustainability in my organisation?
Most organisations own or occupy land and buildings from which they operate their business. The way in which they use these assets – including the amount and type of energy consumed, water usage, respect for biodiversity – can have a considerable impact on their performance in relation to sustainability. Energy use in particular often accounts for a significant proportion of carbon-dioxide-equivalent emissions, especially in offices, prisons, labs and hospitals. Improving land and building management can help organisations to meet their sustainability targets and also to save money by reducing energy and water use.
Why is a sustainability managed estate?
The Government’s Sustainable Development website states that a sustainably managed estate is one that has the following.
- Modern, resource efficient, low energy usage buildings
- Well conserved and managed land
- Efficient use of space and ways of working
- The principles of sustainable development embedded into working practices
Explore the Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate pages.
How can sustainability be taken into account in land and buildings management?
The Targets for Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) split the priorities for sustainable land and buildings managements into three areas which can also be a helpful way of considering the issue for non-central-government organisations – Climate Change and Energy, Sustainable Consumption and Production and Natural Resource Protection.
Climate Change and Energy covers carbon emissions from offices and road vehicles and energy use. To explore staff travel issues, visit the Staff travel module. The Carbon Trust website provides detailed information, guidance and tools on energy management. The Key considerations and Challenges to overcome pages below seek to highlight some of the common questions and issues associated with energy management, but for more comprehensive coverage, we recommend that users visit the Carbon Trust website.
Sustainable Consumption and Production focuses living within our resources and achieving more with less by changing the way we design, produce, use and dispose of the products and services we own and consume. Two key areas are waste and recycling. The negative environmental effects of landfill are well known, so there is an increasing drive to minimise waste being sent to landfill sites and to increase recycling levels as far as possible.
Natural Resource Protection focuses on water consumption and biodiversity. Although there have been recent instances of flooding in the UK, there have also been water shortages, and these are predicted to become more common in the future. Reducing water usage should therefore be a key component of any organisation’s land and building management strategy, both in terms of sustainability and in terms of ensuring consistency of supply.
A fourth area addressed by the SOGE targets is Sustainable Communities, which focuses on integrating the delivery of social, economic and environmental goals, to take a co-ordinated approach to delivering public services that work for everyone, including the most disadvantages, and to think strategically for the long-term.
The Ministry of Defence’s Sustainable Development and Environmental Manual contains a number of leaflets with useful information on several of the above areas.