Briish Land has completed the offset of residual embodied carbon at 100 Liverpool Street which became their first net zero carbon development and one of very few in London.
100 Liverpool Street is a case study of their approach to delivering sustainable buildings. In line with a commitment to re-use first, Britsh Land was able to retain 50% of the existing structure so embodied carbon was low at 390kg CO2e per sqm, already below a 2030 target of 500kg CO2e per sqm. This approach also enabled the completion the building faster and more cost effectively than building from new. Low carbon choices were made throughout and smart technologies adopted to enhance operational efficiency as well as the customer experience.
British Land's approach is to offset only once everything that can be done to reduce embodied carbon in a building has been done. The offset strategy is to focus on carbon removals for residual emissions, using nature based solutions that absorb carbon through growth rather than carbon avoidance or renewable energy projects. British Land supported certified schemes in the UK and overseas and chose projects that have a positive impact on the communities in which they are based. At 100 Liverpool Street, the offset was split equally between a project restoring 30,000 hectares of land on the Tibetan plateau and a teak afforestation project in Mexico. The embodied carbon emissions have been fully offset today, and mirrored that with an additional commitment in the UK, supporting the planting of 150,000 trees in Cumbria and Scotland through Forest Carbon, which is forecast to double the total offset already purchased over the development life cycle of the building.
