The Better Buildings Partnership has appointed two new co-chairs to continue the partnership’s goal of increasing the sustainable efficiency of Sydney’s existing buildings.
The Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) has appointed Emlyn Keane, head of property management and sustainable performance at AMP Capital Investors, and Paul Edwards, group general manager of sustainability at Mirvac, as its new co-chairs. Established in 2011, the BBP is a collaboration between property owners, developers and agents that are working together for improved sustainable performance of Sydney’s existing commercial and public buildings.
Keane has been with the BBP since it began serving as chair of the tenant/owner collaboration working group. He’s made great in-roads in aligning stakeholder groups to bring about better outcomes for the industry, including the championing of best practice leasing. Keane’s efforts have also focused on engaging tenants via the CitySwitch Green Office program and tackling the issue of waste from commercial fitout construction.
Edwards has been with Mirvac since June 2013, having previously headed up the sustainability division of retail property owner Hammerson in the UK. During this time Edwards was the chairman of BBP London and negotiated a milestone agreement with Marks and Spencer to incorporate green lease clauses across all stores. The collaboration was the first of its kind on this scale in the UK.
Edwards is keen to bring lessons learned in the UK to Australia. “The BBP UK was the most effective group in which I participated,” he comments. “It has a great role to play in pushing the sustainability agenda for the benefit of owners, tenants and agents alike. I look forward to bringing some of these international insights to the Sydney team and to further accelerating the sustainability outcomes for the property industry through increased cross-industry collaboration.”
Keane and Edwards take over the role of chair from Bruce Precious of The GPT Group who chaired BBP for two years. In this time the partnership has strengthened its work across key focus areas of water, waste, energy, and tenant/owner collaboration, and is on track to meet emission reduction targets across the collective partners’ portfolios.
The BBP recently delivered an online Leasing Lifecycle Tool that explains the process involved throughout each stage of a new (or renewed) office lease. The tool refers to best practice case studies, template documents and other industry resources and looks at the parties involved, key considerations and the tools to use at each step of the process.
Upcoming work will see the partnership deliver a fitout and materials specification research report, a comprehensive sustainable leasing toolkit for agents and create template lease clauses produced in association with Spark Helmore to help those at lease agreement stage ensure sustainability and building performance parameters are set up front.
The BBP’s efforts are largely focused on cross-industry collaboration and the delivery of tools for increased sustainability efficiencies for Sydney’s existing buildings. All partners have committed to reduce overall emissions across their own portfolios by 70 percent by 2030 in line with the City of Sydney’s overarching Sustainability 2030 strategy.
