Advances in Lendlease, builder of some of the most sustainable homes in the UK
At Lendlease, we have a vision. On track to reach absolute zero carbon by 2040, we aim to create communities with the environment at the fore. Our homes are thoughtfully designed and built to the highest quality. But they’re not just great places to live; they’re an investment in the future too.
It’s this vision that has led us to be in the top 3 sustainable housebuilders in the country in the next generation sustainability benchmark, having previously won the gold award as the UK’s most sustainable housebuilder.
We invest a lot of time into understanding our customers’ ever-changing needs and to accommodate those within our sustainable homes in the UK. We also work closely with our suppliers to ensure we use the most up-to-date technology and techniques, and it’s this process of continuous improvement that ensures that a newbuild Lendlease home uses, for example, 30% less water than the standard UK home.
We’ve set a target to be a 1.5°C aligned company, which means we will achieve:
• Net Zero Carbon by 2025 for Scope 1 emissions, produced directly from the fuels we burn, and Scope 2 emissions from the power we consume.
• Absolute Zero Carbon by 2040, eliminating all emissions, including Scope 3 generated indirectly from our activities, without the use of offsets.
To achieve this target across our global business operations, we set ourselves short, medium and long-term goals that address our direct emissions, and play a lead role in fostering industry partnerships to tackle wider, indirect emissions.
To decarbonise our global business, we’ll undertake 5 key steps:
1. Create a decarbonisation investment strategy in 2021.
2. Phase out diesel and gas in our operations.
3. Use 100% renewable electricity before 2030.
4. Collaborate with supply chain partners to set pathways to achieve absolute zero carbon by 2040.
5. Collaborate with our tenants and residents to transition to renewable electricity and achieve absolute zero carbon by 2040.
ELIMINATING DIESEL, SWITCHING TO HVO FUEL
In 2020, we began our mission to eliminate fossil fuels from construction sites in a bid to tackle climate change. Backed by bold carbon targets to reach Net Zero Carbon by 2025, and Absolute Zero Carbon by 2040, we began trialling diesel replacements across a number of our UK construction projects, in partnership with its supply chain.
Diesel, petrol, and gas to liquid (GTL), which are often used to power machinery onsite, as well as fuel gases such as liquid petroleum gas (LPG) typically used for heating, are soon to be replaced by alternative fuels. Alternatives include Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), hydrogen fuel cells, renewables, and electrified plant when available.
Eliminating diesel from our construction business is a key milestone in Lendlease’s industry-leading Roadmap to Absolute Zero Carbon. Removing it entirely has the potential to have the same environmental impact as growing 16,500 trees from seedlings over 10 years, and our aim as a participating development is to arrive at having completely replaced diesel usage by January 1, 2022.
C40 CLIMATE POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
Elephant Park, our £2.5bn regeneration project in Zone 1 London, was the first UK project to become part of the C40 Climate Positive Development Programme. The project has since continued its climate positive journey, aiming to be one of the world’s most sustainable inner-city projects with an energy centre delivering net zero carbon energy. This in addition to delivering resilience through green infrastructure such as a new park and planting more than 1,300 trees.
The purpose-built BREEAM Excellent (the world’s leading sustainability assessment method for projects) building on Heygate Street and Rodney Road has a state-of-the-art combined heat and power (CHP) plant inside, that will be operated by energy provider E.ON.
The CHP plant uses natural gas, with a biomethane offset to supply low-carbon heating and hot water to the development’s 3,000 new homes, as well as multiple businesses, community areas and leisure spaces.
The Energy Centre has the capacity to deliver low-carbon energy to many more additional homes across Elephant and Castle.
CHP (sometimes known as cogeneration) is a more efficient use of fuel than conventional power sources, as it reuses the large quantities of excess and otherwise wasted heat, recovering this thermal energy for heating. By using this technique, the total energy conversion efficiency could reach 90 per cent.
Combining this with sustainable fuels such as biomethane and domestic energy-saving measures, community heating schemes can provide affordable heating that has a minimal carbon footprint. CHP is a key technology in the Government’s drive away from centralised power generation towards distributed energy generation.
WE ALSO BUILD WITH A GREENER WAY OF LIFE IN MIND
Access to natural light is key to our body’s natural functions, a process known as our Circadian Rhythm or more commonly, our body clock. Our body clock is literally set by our body’s reaction to light, changing as the year passes and the days get longer. And for the last two centuries more of us have started working inside: in offices and, more recently, in our homes: so disrupted sleep (due to disrupted Circadian Rhythm) has become more common.
Now imagine your home had an abundance of light. Floor to ceiling windows in every living room, kitchen and bedroom and open plan design in the main living area, so that light floods through the space.
Many of our apartments, such as those in Deptford Landings, also have balconies adjoining the living area. Those who plump for this option gain yet more access to natural light and the great outdoors. A perfect place to grow your own herbs and flowers, to laze on sunny afternoons and enjoy a tipple in the evening while enjoying the glorious views across the city. To buy a large 2-bedroom apartment with private outdoor space in London is no longer just a pipedream. And just watch how it benefits your overall wellbeing, particularly if you’re going to be working from home in the future.
We also keep abreast of the latest developments in our developments’ surroundings and make sure we find opportunities to make further meaningful change. London’s network of cycle lanes has been updated and expanded in recent years to encourage safer cycling that will help reduce pollution, ease crowding on public transport and enable more people to gain from its health benefits.
As such, our sustainable homes UK in Elephant Park have more than 3,000 cycle spaces available for residents, as well as 90 new hire bikes going into the scheme for the wider public to use. It couldn’t be simpler for pedals to power you to your destination.
If you’re looking for a sustainable home in the UK take a look at our developments in London and Manchester. For example, with 1-2 bed homes heated by a part-natural-gas energy hub, Park & Sayer apartments start at £708,000.
Source: www.publishing.service.gov.uk.