Clean Air Day, marked on 20 June, is the UK’s largest air pollution campaign and is used to encourage active action to reduce toxic air pollution across the country. Both the World Health Organisation and the UK government recognise that air pollution is the single biggest environmental threat to our heath. At Panattoni, we are committed to doing our part to ensure that this threat is continually reduced and eventually eliminated.

Improving the air quality across our portfolio is a crucial part of our pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions for the construction of our new developments. All of our buildings are designed in accordance with the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) framework methodology to achieve net zero carbon ‘in construction’ and the minimum environmental certification that our developments are built to is BREEAM ‘Excellent’, with the highest BREEAM rating of ‘Outstanding’ pursued wherever possible. Our goal is always to make significant positive environmental contributions to the local communities surrounding our assets, so that everybody benefits from lower carbon emissions and cleaner air.

At all Panattoni developments we implement measures to cut carbon emissions in our drive to achieve cleaner air. We aim to recycle more than 90% of demolition construction waste from our brownfield sites when building, helping in our drive to achieve net zero carbon construction. We endeavour to incorporate Low and Zero Carbon (LZC) technology solutions in all our developments to contribute towards their energy requirements, including roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels that provide up to 10% of the overall regulated energy requirements. We also aim to reduce electricity costs for our occupiers while ensuring that renewable energy is used as much as possible.

All sites are equipped with a minimum of 20% electric vehicle charging points in their car parks, with the ability to retrospectively convert to 100% electric vehicle charging, and we utilise air-source heat pumps to heat our office spaces instead of traditional, carbon-emitting gas boilers.  One of our most carbon-light developments is Panattoni Park Aylesford, where we have introduced numerous initiatives to substantially reduce carbon emissions. One such initiative is our car-sharing scheme, offering electric vehicles to workers to travel to and from the site. This substantially cuts down the level of car-related carbon emissions stemming from employees travelling to work, helping to achieve higher air quality around the development.

Significant strides are also being made at Panattoni Park Swindon, where a car-sharing scheme will also be rolled out. We will be boosting the biodiversity of the area around the site, utilising existing woodlands and wetlands to create parks and walkways for the local community, as well as planting 11 hectares of new woodland and sowing 5.3 acres of species-rich grassland in common areas.

We remain committed to fostering spaces that protect the environment for the communities around our developments. To help us achieve this goal in Swindon, we will contribute more than £5.6 million towards ecological and biodiversity protection within the local borough, in addition to providing £250,000 to plant trees for the community off site.

Additionally, we are actively encouraging the use of public transport to reduce carbon emissions from cars. One example of this in action is at Panattoni Park Luton, which has been equipped with a bus stop to increase the number of workers who use public transport to commute to work instead of their own vehicles. This is also an initiative that we have secured at Panattoni Park Swindon, which will feature important bus routes linking the site to Swindon town centre, train station and residential areas.

Another way that we contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions is through extensive collaboration with and, where possible, localisation, of our suppliers and contractors. At Panattoni Park Sittingbourne, we have worked closely with demolition contractor Wordsworth Excavations to deploy its electric truck fleet to the site, substantially reducing transport-related carbon emissions from trucks travelling back and forth. We also strive to source local materials, suppliers and labour wherever we can, providing significant contributions to the national carbon-cutting drive through the reduction of transportation emissions.

Oliver Winchcombe, head of portfolio management and ESG, commented: “We are proud of the extensive initiatives that we have carried out to reduce air pollution and protect the environment at our developments across the UK and Europe.

“As we celebrate Clean Air Day, it is more important than ever to ensure that we take steps to drastically reduce global carbon emissions. Panattoni remains committed to constantly evolving our sustainability strategy as we strive to meet our net zero targets and do our part to achieve cleaner air”.

To find out more about Panattoni’s ESG strategy in the UK, please visit: ESG – Panattoni UK