"It's complicated...". The response from Georgia Elliott-Smith, Managing Director of sustainability strategists Element-4, when asked to identify the biggest challenge to the built environment in efforts to reach a net zero world. Fair enough - it is abundantly clear that so many different strands need to come together to get there (including, of course, on the legal side).
Nonetheless, the launch this week by the UKGBC of guidance on renewable energy procurement and carbon offsetting is another example of how quickly progress is being made. Plus it was encouraging to hear from Georgia, in her excellent presentation earlier this week to the Forsters commercial real estate team, on how much work she is doing on both the building owner and the occupier side to drive forward progress. The momentum has clearly picked up and, from a legal perspective, it will be interesting to see the extent to which owners and occupiers (hopefully) increasingly move towards a common net zero goal. As Georgia alluded to, there is great movement already from the larger corporate owners/ occupiers, but of course, they only represent a small proportion of those that need to be on board. Complicated, as she says...
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