Lend Lease | Partnerships Detail
Environment
Detail Continued
Contents
Land and Biodiversity
The negative impacts on the earth's biodiversity, ecosystems and landscapes from human activities are well known and documented. With great concern, we note suggestions that one in four mammals and one in eight birds are threatened with extinction, half the world's reef-building corals will be lost, some 13 million hectares of the world's forests are lost each year and more than 30 percent of the earth's land surface has been converted for agriculture and urbanisation.
With buildings alone using up to one-third of the world's natural resources, we understand that the buildings we construct, materials we use and activities we conduct have a direct impact on the natural environment. This is why we, at Lend Lease, aspire to protect and enhance biodiversity and land quality through assessment and management of our impacts. We also aim to create opportunities to restore degraded environments and ecosystems where we operate.
Our Performance
In terms of monitoring the ecological (environmental) footprint of our activities and determining future performance, we currently measure:
- Energy consumption (Electricity, Natural Gas, other)
- Materials consumption (by type of material and volume)
- Waste generation (by type, volume and final destination)
- Environmental condition (ecological significance) of land prior to our activity
- Land space occupied by asset and use
- Transportation impacts — materials and people (mode of travel, distance, etc.
- Water consumption
Our Ecological Footprint
In order for these individual measurements (above) to provide a more holistic understanding of our impacts, Lend Lease commissioned WSP Environmental in May 2008 to develop an Ecological Footprint of the company's global activities. WSP Environmental is a partner in the Global Footprint Network, and has worked in partnership with the "co-creator" of the Ecological Footprint, Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, to develop a Global Ecological Footprint for us.
The Global Ecological Footprint measures our environmental impacts by quantifying the amount of bio-productive space required to produce all the resources consumed and absorb all the wastes produced by our organisation and the activities of our Business Units. The results were expressed in global hectares and normalised to reflect global average biomass yields.
The Way Forward
As international Ecological Footprinting boundaries and methodologies are still being developed, Lend Lease is using it’s first global Ecological Footprint to understand our wider environmental impacts from a different perspective. We hope to expand our environmental metrics to further inform our Ecological Footprint and will continue to improve and develop on this first attempt completed in 2008.
Ultimately, the Global Ecological Footprint work will help our Business Units make decisions on what products and materials to use. It will also provide a measurement of our progress towards achieving our aspiration to interrogate every opportunity to demonstrate a positive impact on the environment. As international agreement is obtained on guidelines and protocols for Ecological Footprinting we will seek to also develop a Business Unit–specific Ecological Footprint Modelling Tool to be used as an in-house ecological impact calculator.
Water
Water is a critical resource in the development and construction industry, with buildings accounting for the use of some 12 percent of the world's water.
We recognise our dependence on water for a range of activities and purposes associated with our business, including for the manufacturing or use of construction materials, the operation of the asset or facility and the maintenance of built or natural features, as well as for the health of ecosystems on a site.
In responding to the need to conserve this natural resource, Lend Lease aspires to be zero net water in what we design, construct and develop, for the communities we build and influence, for what we manage and for what we own.
In doing this, we aim to:
- Avoid potable water consumption
- Improve efficiency of water use
- Develop solutions to enhance the built environment's mimicry of the earth's hydrological cycle
- Foster increased access and sustainable use of water in the community and environments in which we operate
Our Performance
In terms of monitoring the water footprint of our activities and determining future performance, we currently measure: Water consumption in our assets and offices.
Throughout 2007, Lend Lease offices conducted audits of the water efficiency of all our permanent tenancies worldwide, and in countries where water efficiency standards were available, we rated them according to those which were better than that standard.
From April 2008, Lend Lease recorded 3,266 megalitres of water consumption in assets under management, representing close to 1,750,000 square metres of floor space.
In addition, we have implemented systems to monitor potable water use and water recycling in all assets under Lend Lease management as of April 2008, including commercial, retail, health, education and industrial facilities, and the results of this monitoring will be reported in the future.
The Way Forward
In the 2009 and 2010 period, we will continue focusing on initiatives to achieve zero net water initiatives in the buildings we design, construct and develop, for the communities we build and influence, for what we manage and for what we own and focussing our strategies to achieve this aspiration.
Waste
We know that buildings use one-third of the world's resources and some 40 percent of waste to landfill comes from construction and deconstruction activities.
Recognising the contribution of our activities to the generation of waste, it is our long-term aspiration to be zero net waste in what we design, construct and develop, for the communities we build and influence, for assets we manage and for those we own.
As outlined in our Environment Policy:
It is our long-term aspiration that all our business operations and all buildings we produce and/or operate are zero net waste as a minimum.
We will continue to avoid the generation of wastes from all our activities and operations, and to recover the natural resources within all waste streams for recycling and reuse.
Our Performance
Waste Management Plans are part of Environment Health and Safety Plans which are implemented by all Lend Lease projects. Waste Management Plans include information relating to key management issues, site controls, pre-construction, waste minimisation, segregation and diversion, monitoring and inspection.
We separately monitor waste and recycling for our office tenancies, investment assets and assets under management, including a range of commercial, retail, industrial, hotels and health facilities.
The following graphs report our waste performance.
Built Environment
The United Nations note that, over their lifespan, buildings are responsible for:
- 25–40 percent of the world’s energy use
- 30–40 percent of the world’s solid waste generation
- 30–40 percent of the world’s global greenhouse gas emissions
- 33 percent of the world’s resources
- 8–12 percent of water use
As outlined in our Environment Policy, we aspire to:
- Protect, conserve and enhance built structures of heritage or cultural significance
- Promote and use green building rating tools
- Foster a holistic approach to the design, delivery and operation of green buildings and precincts
- Encourage and promote the application of innovation, including alternative energy generation solutions
- Ensure sustainable environmental behaviour within our offices and our projects and in the assets we manage.
With businesses spanning property investment and development, construction and asset management, we have an involvement in, and understanding of, the entire property cycle.
We accept the compelling business case for green buildings.
We know that building and managing green makes sense from a risk management perspective.
They also provide healthier, more productive environments for their occupants.
In setting targets to green our projects and our own operations, robust, effective tools are needed with which to measure the implementation of environmental initiatives.
We recognise that being green is about more than just being energy efficient, or water efficient. It is also about indoor environment quality, waste reduction and management, the materials used, management of an asset, land use and ecological impacts, access to alternative transport and also avoiding harmful emissions. The local climatic conditions, human health and ecological impacts are therefore all important to achieve the right holistic response. We therefore support the use of tools that measure across a comprehensive range of environmental criteria. We want tools that provide national consistency and comparison in the geographies in which we operate, and as a global company, Lend Lease also wants tools that enable global comparisons.
Finally, we support design- or delivery-based rating tools that focus on those areas of environmental impact that result as a direct consequence of a building’s brief, design, construction and maintenance— that is, those outcomes that can be directly influenced by stakeholders within the property development industry.
We believe the tools that best meet these criteria are the voluntary environmental rating tools developed by not-for-profit Green Building Councils around the world, specifically the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) developed by the United States Green Building Council, Green Star developed by the Green Building Council of Australia, the United Kingdom Green Building Council’s BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and the Japan Sustainable Building Consortium’s CASBEE, as well as the Building & Construction Authority’s Green Mark in Singapore and other country-specific adaptations of these tools. These tools are created and continually refined by industry-sponsored, consensus-based approaches. They reward design, delivery and operation of environmental and social best practice.
Green Building Projects
Lend Lease is committed to consistently delivering best-practice environmentally sustainable solutions and, ultimately, we aspire for our carbon, water and waste impacts to be zero net for what we design, construct and develop, for the communities we build and influence, for what we manage and for what we own.
In the 2007 calendar year, Lend Lease delivered more than $4,264.2 million worth of projects registered for certification according to green building standards:
| Region | Revenues ($Aust) |
| Australia | $2,431m |
| Asia | $463m |
| United Kingdom | $1,654m |
| CEMEA | $29m |
| US | $1,122m |
100 percent of Bovis Lend Lease (Australia) pipeline projects are registered for Green Star Certification from the Green Building Council of Australia.
In addition to the contracting revenues above, Lend Lease design in Australia also generated USD $48.9m in earnings from green building design services.
People Trained
To date, Lend Lease has 1054 employees trained in the application of green building rating tools, of which 675 have been formally accredited as green building professionals.
Lend Lease Offices
We have a corporate aspiration that any new office lease for Lend Lease operations will achieve a green building rating.
Ten Lend Lease office tenancies have already achieved Green Building Council Certified Ratings globally:
| LEND LEASE OFFICE | LOCATION | GBC CERTIFIED RATING |
| 30 The Bond | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 5 Star Green Star — Office As Built |
| Hanover Square | London, UK | BREEAM Excellent |
| The Gauge | Melbourne, VIC, Australia | 6 Star Green Star — Office Design |
| Albany | Albany, NY, USA | LEED Certified |
| Los Angeles | Los Angeles, CA, USA | LEED Certified |
| San Francisco | San Francisco, CA, USA | LEED Silver |
| Dallas | Dallas, TX, USA | LEED Gold |
| Denver | Denver, CO, USA | LEED Gold |
| Harrow | London, UK | BREEAM Excellent |
| Ropes Crossing — Project Office and Sales and Information Centre | Ropes Crossing, NSW, Australia | 4 Star Green Star — Office Interiors |
In addition, two tenancies and assets under management are targeting green building certification:
| LEND LEASE TENANCY/ ASSET UNDER MANAGEMENT | LOCATION | GBC CERTIFIED RATING |
| The Gauge | Melbourne, VIC, Australia | 6 Star Green Star — Office Design |
| 313@Somerset | Singapore | Platinum Green Mark |
Green Building Councils
In September 2007, the Lend Lease Board affirmed that we would support Green Building Councils in the geographies in which we operate and support through employees contributing to Green Building Council committees.
Lend Lease is a founding member of the USA, UK, UAE and Australian Green Building Councils. We are also actively involved in the establishment of Green Building Councils in other regions, such as Spain, China and Malaysia.
Currently, employees hold board directorships in the New York and Colorado Chapters of the US Green Building Council (USGBC), Australian Green Building Council and UK Green Building Council.
Additional committee positions are held on the:
- Executive Committee of the Colorado Chapter of USGBC
- UK GBC Policy and Communications Committee
- UK GBC Membership and Marketing Committee
- UK GBC Technical Committee
and on Working Groups and Task Groups, including:
- UK GBC Measurement and Reporting Task Group
- UK GBC Zero Carbon Task Group
- UK GBC Materials Working Group
- UK GBC Supply Chain Working Group
- UK GBC Visioning Working Group
For more information on Green Building Councils visit:
- UK Green Building Council: http://www.ukgbc.org
- US Green Building Council: http://www.usgbc.org
- Green Building Council of Australia: http://www.gbca.org.au
- World Green Building Council: http://www.worldgbc.org
It is required that you have JavaScript enabled and the latest version of Adobe Flash Player installed in order to view the full version of our sustainability website.
If you are certain you meet these requirements click here to bypass the detection.