Update December 2022

General

1. Why are green leases good for my business?
   1. They can help you reduce the environmental impact of your business in a low effort way, which can also reduce your operating costs. 
      
      
   2. Increasingly, a wide range of stakeholders, including customers, investors, employees, media and governmental officials, care what a company is doing for — or to — the environment. A green lease adds a further dimension to your brands sustainability story.
       
   3. All tenants on green leases are able to join our Sustainability Forum where businesses can learn from each other to drive their own sustainability performance and help Grosvenor continue to improve. 

2. What exactly will green leases mean for my business? 

In creating our green leases, our focus was on making it as easy as possible for businesses to be green. For example, our waste collection services save you time and the administrative burden of dealing with, setting up and switching providers. You can read about what clauses the green leases contain here. Existing tenants can also contact their Asset Manager. 

3. How do I move onto a green lease?

Since April 2020, all new leases in our properties are green leases. If you are an existing tenant, please speak to your Asset Manager/Leasing Manager about moving on to our green lease. Once the documents are completed, our waste collection service providers will be in contact to arrange a smooth setup (or transfer). 

4. How much will signing up to a green lease cost?

Our focus in setting up our green leases has been to make going green easy and find ways to reduce operating costs.

However, there are limited circumstances where a tenant can reasonably expect to incur costs within the lease. This includes:

1. A fair and reasonable portion of costs for works we might carry out to improve the environmental performance of the property. You would be consulted prior to works to ensure they are reasonable and conducted cost effectively. We are committed to only acting reasonably in doing this, and we would consult with you before going ahead. If there is a benefit to your business, for example in savings on energy costs as a result of our works, that is when we may ask for a fair and reasonable contribution to those works reflecting those energy savings.
   
   
2. In certain circumstances, you may be asked to cover the cost of obtaining a new EPC, principally where one is required because of works you have undertaken. This is already a standard lease provision. 
   
   
3. Signing any legal documentation may incur legal fees where you seek professional advice. Where you are signing a new lease with us, the inclusion of green clauses is unlikely to incur material additional legal fees above a solicitor’s usual fees for dealing with a commercial lease, although of course please check this with your solicitor. We pay our own legal fees when we enter agreements with you, and would not ask you to contribute to our legal costs for green provisions.

Electricity

1. What are the environmental credentials of Grosvenor’s green energy? 

The energy we can procure for tenants is UK REGO certified from 100% Renewable sources, including wind and solar.   Our green electricity is procured via SSE until April 2023.  However, we keep our provider under review to ensure our energy is competitively priced and represents the most sustainable option available to us. 

2. Who pays for the installation of smart meters?  
   

Grosvenor will pay for the installation of smart meters where not supplied by energy provider, reported by tenant via manual readings or obtained through third parties.

3.  What data does Grosvenor collect?  

To understand how trends are changing, we collect data on utility consumption and waste collected. 

9.  What does Grosvenor do with my energy data?  

We use aggregated energy data to monitor progress a towards our net carbon zero goals. 

10. Who should I contact if I have any questions or concerns?  
    

Please speak to your Property Relationship Manager.

Waste Collection

1. Who is Grosvenor’s provider? 

Currently we use First Mile. We regularly review our contracts to ensure these are delivering good value. The reasons that we use First Mile include improved waste sorting and zero waste-to-landfill. As they are active in the West End for other landlords, this also reduces traffic in the area overall. 

2. Why does Grosvenor procure waste for occupiers? 

As your waste collection provider, we can reduce the number of different providers (and therefore vehicles) collecting waste locally. This reduces air pollution and traffic levels.  

3. How can I be sure that the costs will stay competitive? 
   

We regularly review our contracts with service partners to ensure best value and quality of service.  

First Mile regularly benchmark pricing to ensure they remain competitive. The provision of additional recycling services provides further opportunities for savings versus those achieved through use of competitor services. Any price increases from First Mile will be applied in line with market factors and representative of those passed on across the industry; however, First Mile will also cap any annual increase at 5% should market forces push increases above this threshold.  

4. Who should I contact if I have any questions about my waste collection service? 

Please speak to your Property Manager.

Other Green Lease clauses

Clauses

1. What is the Sustainability Forum? 

We will shortly be launching a knowledge sharing initiative for our occupiers to come together to share ideas and insights about improving their sustainability. We may also engage external speakers on specific topics. We encourage all our occupiers to take part. We plan to offer this initiative as a benefit of being one of our occupiers and you won’t be asked to pay towards it.  

2. What works might Grosvenor want to carry out at my property and how will this affect my business? 

We may wish to implement energy improvement works to improve the environmental performance of the building. We are committed to only acting reasonably in doing this, and we would consult with you before going ahead. If there is a benefit to your business, for example in savings on energy costs as a result of our works, we may ask for a fair and reasonable contribution to those works reflecting those energy savings.  

3. What is Grosvenor’s Environmental Policy?

In 2019, we set stretching environmental goals relating to carbon, waste and biodiversity. Each goal requires us to work collaboratively with our suppliers and tenants to ensure we can meet them. You can read about or commitments here.  

4. What if I am not able to consolidate my deliveries? 

We strongly encourage the reduction of traffic to reduce local air pollution and make the streets where we all work nicer places to be. So we ask that you take so we ask that you consolidate your deliveries as much as is reasonably possible.  

5. What is an EPC rating? 

EPC stands for Energy Performance Certificate. It is one means of assessing how energy efficient a property is, using grades from A to G (‘A’ being the most efficient) and it often contains recommendations for how to improve the environmental performance.  

Further reading:

Tenant Fit Out Guides

How do Green Leases work?

Environmental Leadership