NextGeneration 2007 Sustainability Benchmark Report launched.
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New head of RPI at Hermes |
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Client News | June 2008 |
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Hermes Real Estate has announced the appointment of Tatiana Bosteels as its new Head of Responsible Property Investment (RPI). As Head of RPI, she will be responsible for Hermes’s comprehensive RPI programme covering management, development and investment activity. She will report to Keith Bugden, Director of Hermes Real Estate. Tatiana joins Hermes from the London Climate Change Agency (LCCA) where she was the Climate Change Manager and played a key role in ensuring the agency’s incorporation into a successful implementation body for London. Tatiana has been at the forefront of developing innovative policies in climate change and sustainability and implementing them through ground-breaking public / private vehicles and initiatives for more than a decade. Tatiana also ran her own climate change consultancy business for three years, working on developing the UK and EU emissions trading schemes and Kyoto Protocol mechanisms, and helping the private sector to identify strategic opportunities from carbon markets and sustainability policies. Commenting on Tatiana’s appointment, Keith Bugden said: “We are delighted to welcome someone as experienced in this sector as Tatiana and her appointment is a clear signal of Hermes Real Estate’s long-term commitment to the principles of Responsible Property Investment. Tatiana will be implementing our ambitious plans for Hermes’ RPI programme during 2008 and beyond. Her extensive practical knowledge of low carbon technology solutions, carbon markets and climate change impacts will be invaluable as we continue to develop our own sustainability policies and to be at the forefront of the climate change debate in the real estate sector." Tatiana says: “Cities and the built environment are today’s world development drivers and they hold the solution to achieving a more sustainable growth. I believe that at the present time all the necessary elements - regulation, commercial interests & customer demand - are in place to make sustainability in the built environment an attractive commercial proposition and it is in this context that I am very excited to join Hermes Real Estate.” |
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Directors of Upstream recognised as most influential leaders of the UK green building movement |
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Upstream News | June 2008 |
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Julie Hirigoyen and Sarah Ratcliffe, both directors of Upstream and regional directors of Jones Lang LaSalle have been featured in Building Magazine as the top "green gurus" who have had most influence on the Green Building Movement in the UK. Julie and Sarah came first in the Top 10 list and, according to the article, "This pair may not be the best known in sustainable circles but they have been ploughing an incredibly important furrow for over a decade." In addition, the judges have recognised that "Upstream has been essential in providing a long list of important property sector companies with the capacity to engage with and understand their relationship with the environmental and broader sustainability agenda. The services Sarah and Julie have developed have been central to getting the mainstream of the industry engaged in the agenda. Proving that building and developing sustainably benefits the balance sheet as well as the planet is something of a Holy Grail right now – if anyone is going to do it this outfit are." To find out who the other top 10 'green gurus' are and read the full article, click here. |
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Sophie and Kit in UKGBC Biodiversity Taskforce |
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Upstream News | June 2008 |
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Sophie Walker and Kit Gillibrand from Upstream are currently sitting on the task group on biodiversity and the built environment at the UK Green Building Council. The group will address the following key issues: - Assessment of current biodiversity inclusion in built environment rating tools The UKGBC's mission is "to dramatically improve the sustainability of the built environment, by radically transforming the way it is planned, designed, constructed, maintained and operated." The UK-GBC is helping to forge a new partnership between government, industry and other stakeholder groups.
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Upstream takes Benchmarking for Properties Service Online |
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Upstream News | June 2008 |
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Upstream is pleased to announce a landmark in the evolution of the Performance Benchmarking service. Now called Upstream Benchmarking for Properties, the service is delivered online to make the process of collating sustainability performance data faster, easier and more precise than ever. This new online tool enables greater and more sophisticated data collection for a wide range of property sustainability metrics. The online questionnaires are tailored specifically for each property type being benchmarked – and crucially take account if the respondent is an Owner (or Agent) or an Occupier of the property. Further, since the questionnaire is dynamic, if the response to a questions signals that a section of the questionnaire is not relevant (e.g. if there is no Combined Heat and Power onsite), those questions are hidden. Data validation features ensure submitted data is of high quality - and this feature will be further enhanced in the future, alongside greater internationalisation of the system. Later this year participating companies will be able to view results of the benchmarking via the online system. This capability will further enhance the advice clients receive, complementing various face-to-face presentations made strategically at the portfolio and more practically for the managers of the buildings themselves.
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London Better Together Day – May 2008 |
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Upstream News | May 2008 |
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Upstream staff put their skills to the test during London Better Together Day at Southrise Primary School in Plumstead, south east London. The London-wide day of volunteering and charity work, which pairs over 2500 volunteers from over 80 companies with local schools and community projects, is organized every year by Business in the Community. The work undertaken at the school was made possible not only by the great enthusiasm of the volunteers, but also by generous contributions from the companies that sponsored the day. The two murals were painted using environmentally friendly (VOC-free) paints, which were kindly donated by Self-Coat Eco Paints, the leading global suppliers of VOC-free paints. The tools used for the gardening project were generously donated to the school by MITIE, a leading FTSE 250 support service business. These contributions meant that only a small part of the Jones Lang LaSalle charity budget was spent, allowing a cheque for £855 to be donated to the school. The first task was to transform a rundown outhouse into a ‘reward room’ for well-behaved children. The four walls were decorated with a sub-aquatic montage of cartoon favourite SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends. On an exterior wall, an imaginative intergalactic mural was created, with planets as numbered targets and an array of rockets, aliens and shooting stars, which the children were thrilled with. A third team of volunteers set to work on an overgrown garden space, which was preventing sunlight from entering the classroom and taking up space in the playground The team cleared the area of undergrowth and weeds, trimmed back an archway of ivy and potted more manageable plants. A series of tiles were also decorated by volunteers with key sustainable living messages and will be put on display around the school. James Edney, Intern: “A very fulfilling and enjoyable experience. With the long-term future of sustainability in their hands let’s hope our work has provided the children with a fun and colourful environment in which to play and makes school an even more enjoyable place to Sophie Walker, Lead Consultant: “It was very well organised. It was a real pleasure and the children seemed genuinely thrilled with what we’d done.”
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Upstream at Think08 |
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Upstream News | May 2008 |
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Think08 was a busy conference for the Upstream and Jones Lang LaSalle teams with talks, presentations and research papers all premiering. Sustaining Value White Paper Upstream launched a research paper titled "Sustaining Value", which investigates sustainability as a new dimension to property risk, price and performance with a focus on occupiers' new outlooks on procurement policies. This paper, which was written jointly by Sarah Ratcliffe, Upstream director, David Cadman, consultant and former chairman of Upstream, Chris Strathon, director of the valuation advisory team at Jones Lang LaSalle and Stephanie McMahon, Associate Director of EMEA Research, is the first of a series that will be produced by Upstream and the Jones Lang LaSalle research team. Upstream Benchmarking for Properties Matthew Tippett gave a presentation on the new look for Upstream's performance benchmarking as it goes online for the first time this year. An interview with Matthew Tippett by CantosTV is available to view here. Next Generation Informative presentations were given to NextGeneration member companies by Sarah Ratcliffe, Swenja Surminski (Association of British Insurers) and Penny Bramwell (London Climate Change Partnership). The presentations concentrated on the need for UK housebuilders to address climate change adaptation strategies. Sarah Ratcliffe presented the report entitled "Climate Change - The Risks for Property in the UK", which was jointly commissioned by Hermes and Upstream from UCL and aimed to research and analyse the impact of climate change on the UK’s different types of property portfolios, engaging UK property investors and developers in issues of adaptation. Penny Bramwell, head of the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit, emphasised practical and technical steps that can be followed by housebuilders to tackle the need for climate change adaptation. Swenja Surminski, Policy Advisor for Climate Change, focused on the impacts of climate change for the insurance sector, highlighting the need for adaptation responses from the property industry, and calling on the government to develop a long term strategy to manage Britain’s growing flooding risk.
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Upstream Leading IEMA Workshops in Bournemouth |
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Upstream News | May 2008 |
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Four Upstream consultants will be participating as guest speakers in the 2008 IEMA conference which will take place at the Bournemouth International Centre on the 4th and 5th of June. The conference will provide delegates with opportunities to express their views on how environmental and social issues are increasingly affecting the political agenda as well as the economy and how this can be best tackled by environmental and sustainability practitioners. 30 workshops will be held on this occasion. Sophie Walker and Jenny Pidgeon will lead a session around " Making Green Claims". Their presentation will focus on how companies and organisations can avoid charges of "greenwash" and ensure that their claims on corporate responsibility are trusted and believed by their stakeholders. The session will aim to explore practical solutions to these questions, including the importance of well measured, monitored and reported environmental performance. Abigail Dean and Laura Jockers will deliver a presentation on "Using Materiality to Focus your CR Strategy". It will aim to clarify how companies can best identify and address the social and environmental issues that affect their business activities. One way of achieving this is by conducting materiality studies, which offer a way of using limited resources wisely in view of making the greatest improvements to an organisation's sustainable performance. The presentation will be illustrated by a case study to demonstrate how materiality workshops and studies can be used strategically to draw the boundaries of an organisation's Corporate Responsibility policy as well as implement efficient governance structures.
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Living in a Low Carbon World Conference |
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Upstream News | April 2008 |
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Jones Lang LaSalle sponsored the Living in a Low Carbon World Conference that was held at the Sustainable Environment Foundation on April 17th. The conference was aimed at generating a debate on how to create a framework of “joined up thinking” and what practical steps can be taken to reduce the carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions from the built environment. Three Upstream team members, Anand Punja, Jenny Pidgeon and Sophie Walker, were present. The panel dedicated to “measurements and metrics” was particularly relevant to Upstream business activities. Panellists including Zac Goldsmith, director of the Ecologist, Liz Peace from the British Property Federation and James Cameron from Climate Change Capital, sought to analyse the latest developments, risks and rewards in financial and other metrics, whilst balancing investment, credit provision and stakeholder aspirations for profitability and longevity.
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Real Value in a Changing World - Jones Lang LaSalle new branding |
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Upstream News | April 2008 |
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Jones Lang Lasalle has introduced a new brand positioning around the globe. Charles Doyle, Jones Lang LaSalle Global Chief Marketing Officer, states that this is part of the company's global strategy in “seeking to be the world's most differentiated commercial real estate brand.” The new strapline "Real value in a changing world" is now being embraced by 60 countries around the world, and Jones Lang LaSalle's 30,000 employees. With this new branding, Jones Lang Lasalle reasserts its purpose as a company to create and deliver value for its clients, shareholders and employees in a constantly changing world. In addition, a new powerful visual identity has been launched. This will be followed shortly by the creation of a new public website, reflecting on all Jones Lang LaSalle's areas of business as well as the firm's core missions.
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Upstream and Jones Lang LaSalle featured on Estates Gazette TV |
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Upstream News | April 2008 |
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Chris Hiatt, the Head of the Global Sustainability Board, Stephanie McMahon, from the Jones Lang LaSalle research department and Matthew Tippet, associate director of Upstream, were all recently featured on Estates Gazette TV. They were discussing the challenges, risks and opportunities faced by the property sector in the UK and the European Union in the context of the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The Research team at Jones Lang LaSalle found that approaches for the implementation of the EPBD vary across countries, potentially affecting investors’ activities. In addition, overall reception by occupiers and developers in the UK has been very positive and all actors in the property sector are increasingly taking into account the sustainability impact of their activities. To watch the discussion online click here.
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Upstream intake |
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Upstream News | March 2008 |
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Over the past few months Upstream has been recruiting at a remarkable rate. Since November 2007 fourteen people have been hired to manage the ever increasing client work. Positions taken by the new recruits cover the whole spectrum of roles and responsibilities at Upstream, from intern level through project assistants and consultants to lead consultants. This recruitment drive illustrates the rising demand of the property companies for strategic advice on how to function as a socially and environmentally responsible industry. Details of the new team members can be seen below: New interns Penny Ager, has been working with us one day a week since November '07 New project assistants / analysts Antonio Flor, joined December '07 New consultants Rhiannon Lewis, joined February '08 New lead consultant Anand Punja, joined March '08 Further information can be found by clicking on the names in blue above.
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Hammerson's CR report 2007 |
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Client News | March 2008 |
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Hammerson have just released their 2007 corporate responsibility report. Upstream have worked closely with Hammerson throughout the year on several aspects of this report, including reviews of targets and KPIs, stakeholder engagement workshops and a materiality review, which have all helped refine Hammerson's approach to corporate responsibility for the year ahead. Notable achievements of the year include: An online version of the report is available here.
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Workspace Group plc awarded for its 2007 Sustainability Report |
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Client News | March 2008 |
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At a gala evening and ceremony held on the 3rd of March in Berlin, Germany, Workspace Group plc was announced as the second runner up in the Best SME Report category, for its 2007 Sustainability Report, which was written together with Upstream. The event was part of the Ethical Corporation’s CR Reporting Summit and Awards 2008. The CR Reporting Awards 2007 (CRRA07) are the first global independent awards for corporate responsibility reporting launched in 2007 by CorporateRegister.com, the world’s largest online directory of CR & Sustainability Reports, based in London. 300 companies competed for the awards and the voting was undertaken online by CorporateRegister.com users (CR report readers). Paul Scott, managing director of CorporateRegister.com, said that “the time was right to ask an informed audience to identify and reward international best practice.” The awards comprise 9 categories, one of which is Best SME Report. The winners include Vodafone (Best Report), BMW AG (Best Carbon Disclosure), and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc (Best SME Report). The full list can be viewed here.
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Performance Benchmarking gets an overhaul |
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Upstream News | February 2008 |
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Collectively, the latest participants in the Sustainability Performance Benchmarking for shopping centres and offices have demonstrated improvements in energy consumption – 2 out of 3 shopping centres and 59% of offices (expressed as carbon dioxide per floor area). Likewise, recycling rates have improved at three quarters of participating shopping centres, whilst office participants have focused on how to monitor and measure waste management. It will be interesting to track whether water efficiency can be turned around, as it is the one area where improvements were not the norm for either property type.
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Forward looking sessions for Upstream |
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Upstream News | February 2008 |
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From the 18th to the 20th of February 2008, Upstream left London to take time to reflect on the present and future of the company. The time spent together in Norfolk allowed Upstream to cover key issues regarding Upstream services, strategies and general business operations. Workshops and other group activities were designed to foster participation and encourage innovative inputs and ideas from Upstream team members. A key theme reviewed was the recent acquisition of Upstream by Jones Lang Lasalle and how best to integrate our services. In view of this, Andy Mottram, Andrew Gould, and Misa Von Tunzelman, from Jones Lang LaSalle, joined the discussions and workshops and along with the rest of the team, contributed to the success of the three days.
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PRUPIM cited in UNEP's 'What the leaders are doing' report |
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Client News | January 2008 |
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PRUPIM’s community development initiatives have been used as case studies in a report released by the UNEP entitled "Responsible Property Investment: What the leaders are doing". The example given was PRUPIM's sponsorship of the Prudential 4 Youth program, which engaged with young people to address crime and safety issues in the areas near PRUPIM's shopping centres. Since this initiative started, damage and nuisance problems reported have decreased as much as 70%. The full UNEP report can be viewed online here.
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Jones Lang LaSalle reports record 2007 earnings |
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Upstream News | January 2008 |
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JLL, which now includes Upstream as one of its business unit, has published its annual results showing strong growth over the last year. Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (NYSE: JLL), the leading integrated global real estate services and money management firm, today reported record net income of $256 million, or $7.64 per diluted share of common stock, for the year ended December 31, 2007. This represents an increase of 46 percent over the prior year’s net income of $175 million, or $5.24 per share. Revenue for the full year 2007 was $2.7 billion, an increase of 32 percent from the prior year, the result of strong performance in all operating segments. Operating income for 2007 was $342 million compared with $244 million for the prior year, an increase of 40 percent, led by Asia Pacific and EMEA. Included in the firm’s 2007 full-year results was a significant advisory transaction fee earned by the Asia Pacific Hotels business. “Our record 2007 performance reflects growth from the diversity of our services and clients, and the breadth of our global platform, a combination which more than offset the impact to our clients of disruptions in the debt markets,” said Colin Dyer, Chief Executive Officer of Jones Lang LaSalle. “We are benefiting from superb execution by our people on behalf of clients as well as the continuing strategic investments and acquisitions we have made to strengthen and diversify our market positions,” Dyer added. _____________________________________________________________________
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Sustainability Report 2007 - Executive Summary
Sustainability Report 2007 - full version
Climate Change – The Risks for Property in the UK
A report by the Environment Institute at the University College London entitled ‘Climate Change – The Risks for Property in the UK’, which has been jointly commissioned by Hermes and Upstream. This report examines the impact that a changing climate will have on the property market in the UK.