The City of London Corporation’s planning and transportation committee has approved new sustainability guidance for the built environment sector.
The new Planning for Sustainability Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), which provides guidance on how developers should approach the City Corporation’s sustainability policies in their planning applications, will be adopted in the coming weeks.
Five key sustainability themes are covered in the SPD, which are applicable to all development proposals within the City. These themes are: retrofit and reuse; greenhouse gas emissions and energy use; circular economy; climate resilience; and urban greening and Biodiversity.
The SPD also provides guidance about the City Corporation’s ‘Retrofit First’ approach and on the application of the NABERS UK* target, in addition to introducing embodied carbon benchmarking, aligning to the Greater London Authority embodied carbon benchmarks.
In the event that applications do not achieve the upfront embodied carbon benchmarks at planning stage, developments will be expected to go above and beyond in their delivery of wider environmental sustainability benefits, for the Square Mile.
Shravan Joshi, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s planning and transport committee, said: “The committee’s approval of the Planning for Sustainability SPD is a major step forward for the City Corporation in pursuit of its decarbonisation goals. This new guidance provides transparency to the built environment sector, encouraging it to come with us on this journey, as we see continued confidence and demand for high quality, sustainable office space in the Square Mile.
“The City of London is home to some of the most sustainable commercial buildings on the planet and as it continues to be a hugely attractive place for office occupiers, we are setting the pace globally for sustainable design, with the delivery of the next generation of new and retrofit developments, to attract the best global talent, innovators and high growth businesses.”
