As custodians of some of London’s most iconic buildings, our mission is to improve their condition and enhance their social and environmental value. Between 2022 and 2024, we embarked on an ambitious retrofit project to transform seven of our owned buildings and we’re thrilled that the project won Retrofit Project of the Year at Property Week’s inaugural ESG Edge Awards 2024!
The collection of buildings included properties listed at Grade II, Grade II* and Grade I and featured stand out architectural gems such as 1 Cornhill and Central Court, Holborn, formerly the headquarters for the London Patent Office. Despite the challenge posed by the age, and listed nature of our portfolio, we recognised an opportunity to align with best practice standards and minimise our carbon, energy, water and material use. Retrofitting these sites preserved both embodied carbon and the legacy of each building, while ensuring we met new efficiency standards.
The environment at the heart of our work
We developed a comprehensive Sustainability Strategy in 2023, with environmental goals set including achieving Net Zero Carbon by 2040 and moving our owned portfolio to an EPC rating of B by 2030.
We embraced the retrofit project to move us forward against our objectives. Working sustainably was a guiding principle. Achieving a ‘minimum intervention approach’, guided by the heritage conservation requirements of the buildings was our greatest success. This drove us to work sustainably including maximising re-use of existing materials (e.g. wiring, pipework and light fittings), reducing new material requirements and prolonging the useful life of the infrastructure we inherited.
Our achievements include:
- Improving the energy efficiency and reducing emissions. Post retrofit, the 7 buildings have reached EPC of C or higher, ahead of Government targets
- Completing a condition review of all M&E equipment and upgrading where required, including at 1 Cornhill the total overhaul of AHU plant to improve air quality, and replacement of heating and cooling system switching natural gas for an air-source heat pump
- Upgrading the heating and cooling systems in five of the buildings
- Procuring 100% of electricity for retrofitted buildings (and all those we own) from REGO backed renewable sources
- Installing high efficiency LED lighting and presence detection controls
- Moving from diesel to electric company vehicle
- Introduction of Belu water filtration system saving 48,000 bottles
- Sourcing metals, stone and timber used in the retrofit sustainably
- Collaborating with an FSC-accredited joiner
“The design approach for the Argyll buildings focused on maintaining the delicate balance between preserving each building’s valued heritage features and reducing operational energy consumption.
DMBA prioritised sustainability throughout the proposals by collaborating with an FSC-accredited joinery company, ensuring the use of sustainably sourced materials like metals, stones, and timbers. Additionally, an energy-efficient lighting plan was developed in partnership with the services consultant, creating unique feature lighting that pays homage to the building’s historical significance while lowering energy consumption.
DMBA’s expertise in intricate design, combined with an understanding of contemporary sustainable practices, resulted in uniquely crafted heritage workplaces that benefit both current and future users.” Damion Burrows, DMBA Architecture and Interior Design
Making social and governance gains
Our work around sustainability spans social and governance goals too, and throughout the retrofit project we focused on a range of objectives.
The project allowed us to take a leadership role on sustainability in our sector, engaging with stakeholders to maximise the impact we make. In April 2023 we hosted ‘Striving for sustainability in heritage office buildings’ a roundtable event attended by leading players including The Crown Estate, The Portman Estate and Sir Robert McAlpine. It was an opportunity to shine a light on the challenge real estate faces in preventing older buildings becoming obsolete due to changing ESG requirements.
For us, social value encompasses our local communities, our clients and our team. As part of our push towards Zero Waste to Landfill and our focus on delivering social value via outreach work we have partnered with charities IRMO and METRO to donate furniture replaced within the retrofit project. We offer our team regular opportunities to connect with local communities – in 2023 for example, they logged 168 volunteering hours with our partner charity, The Connection at St.Martin’s.
We recognise the importance of robust governance. Our focus areas in terms of governance include talent and diversity and we have made a number of key steps over the course of 2023 such as introducing gender, disability and ethnicity reporting and monthly mandatory D&I training. We measured a fall in staff turnover from 30% in 2021 to 3.5% in 2023.
Our achievement
Office buildings have emitted one-third of their lifetime CO2 emissions upon completion. We believe that retrofitting can reshape the future of office spaces.
We have proved that with creative approaches, the sector can meet modern workplace needs while contributing to net-zero targets and celebrating the historical and cultural value of existing building stock.
Thank you to Property Week for hosting the ESG Edge Awards and driving the sustainability agenda forward in the industry.
