Energy & Sustainability
CLIENT
CLIENT INDUSTRY
SERVICES PROVIDED
LOCATIONS
SIZE/VALUE
DIVISIONS INVOLVED
DATE
CHALLENGE
The Calthorpe Group has developed a reputation for creating developments which are community led and have high levels of social impact. The group has more recently turned its focus to ensuring that it understands and reduces where possible its impact on the environment. This is borne out of an increased awareness of the liability and opportunity the mitigation and communication of environmental sustainability of property owners.
Savills Property Management team in Birmingham led by Victoria Burgin act as agents for a large part of Calthorpe’s Edgebatson portfolio and the Rural team in Perth manage the 8,000 acre Muckrach Estate near Grantown-on-Spey. With a combined knowledge of Calthorpe’s assets and their operation, Savills were able to respond to the need for an assessment of the portfolio’s emissions and to develop a strategy to reduce those over time.
SOLUTION
A team from Savills Earth, led by Chris Cummings compiled a proposal to asses direct emissions from the Edgbaston portfolio.
Calthorpe’s built assets are likely to be net emitters even after having mitigated the carbon that can be eliminated through operational changes. As managers of their Scottish rural assets for the Group, Savills is able to advise on the inclusion of Calthorpe’s three rural landholdings in the emissions assessment and strategy. Rural assets, though often net emitters themselves, have inherent potential to sequester carbon and contribute to the positive environmental credentials of an organisation.
RESULTS
In the context of Scotland’s political landscape, it is important that Muckrach Estate is managed as a progressive, environmentally responsible corporate citizen as scrutiny of rural landowners’ contribution to society increases. This combined with an acknowledgment that the portfolio will have residual, unavoidable emissions, the Estate and Forestry management teams in Scotland are developing a landscape-scale land use change and habitat creation scheme on what had been a grouse moor at Muckrach Estate. The scheme will focus on encouraging natural regeneration, new native woodland creation and peatland restoration. Key drivers for the scheme were carbon income through registration of the scheme under the Woodland Carbon Code and biodiversity enhancement. The scheme is likely to sequester circa 400,000tCO2 over the next 75 years.
Combining a portfolio-wide emissions assessment at Calthorpe with a refreshed strategy for management of the Group’s rural assets has the potential to leave them in a better position than their competitors as requirements for businesses to report and mitigate their environmental impacts increase. More specifically, by producing a source of carbon offsets within the business, Calthorpe can protect itself from the inherent risk associated with requirements to acquire carbon credits to meet environmental and ultimately net zero target from a burgeoning voluntary carbon market in which demand outstrips supply.