This announcement from Grosvenor is a useful reminder. Its Toronto Square office building is reported to be the first existing development to secure a NABERS UK Energy rating, the benchmark of actual in-use environmental performance that originates in Australia (in contrast to the EPC - a measure of what an asset can achieve). 

Whilst voluntary uptake of NABERS picks up, what has happened to the prospect that we may see NABERS-based mandatory regulation - "the next generation EPC" - see this 2021 blog here? There has been no reported movement towards the statute book, even though the consultation closed over 12 months ago! Surely there is a risk that with the current political and economic backdrop, we may see further delay? 

Putting that to one side, it will be interesting to see the interplay between existing office buildings, and voluntary moves to secure NABERs ratings. As we see investors target "brown offices" and the opportunity to improve EPC rating, will (and should we) see a similar focus on improving actual performance, with target NABERS ratings? 

As the NABERS UK scheme has now been extended to cover whole buildings (which would pick up the occupation of a single tenant of whole) and tenancies (where tenants can rate the space they occupy), is this a further opportunity? With landlord and tenants increasingly focusing on ESG priorities, might we see parties that commit to given ratings, embedded perhaps contractually? 

The increasing move towards "green leases" is one thing, but is there actual change on the ground, notwithstanding what the lease obligations may say? As Robert Cohen, Technical Director at Verco, refers to here: "if you want to improve performance, measure performance”.