Built-environment

Real estate assets are increasingly valued on their real world ESG credentials. We collaborate with industry professionals and stakeholders to ensure the success of your sustainable development initiatives and to add value to real estate portfolios through improved ESG performance. We can help you develop proactive ESG strategies, navigate regulations and market expectations, mitigate physical risks, and deliver sustainable outcomes, fostering responsible and sustainable development for generations to come.

Areas of focus

• Sustainable development: We bring a legal perspective to the ESG-considerations which arise throughout the entire lifecycle of a building from planning, to construction, financing, occupation, through to re-purposing or decommissioning at end of life. We have a proud track record of advising on developments which are best in class when assessed against rating systems such as BREEAM, WELL and NABERS. 
• Energy and infrastructure: Few industries in the next decade face such profound change as the energy sector. Climate change has galvanised consumers, businesses and financiers to invest in clean energy and green production, and governments around the world are plotting ambitious green revolutions of their economies. Our international energy group understands the shifting marketplace, and has a long history of advising companies in the energy sector – from hydrocarbon to on and offshore wind farms, solar PV, hydro, geothermal, energy from waste and other forms of renewables.
• Green leases: Landlord and tenants are seeking increasingly to incorporate sophisticated green lease clauses, looking to deliver on their sustainability commitments, increase asset and rental values, improve the wellbeing of building users, and simply reduce operational costs. Our real estate team are experts in this area, having negotiated green leases across the full range of asset classes and worked with The Chancery Lane Project to publish lease clauses incorporating sustainable and circular economy principles. 
• Energy efficiency: As market forces and regulation drive improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings, we help clients to meet both their sustainability ambitions and satisfy current and future legal requirements including in relation to the production of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES). 
• ESG-focussed portfolios: We advise clients on the development, acquisition, and management of environmentally and socially focussed real estate portfolios, including in the healthcare, life sciences, and living sectors. 
• Flood and climate resilience: With the risk of physical climate change impacts on the rise, we can protect your asset values by assisting with focussed due diligence and advising on the legal aspects to help you fortify your properties against flood and other climate risks.
• Planning: We work with clients to secure planning consents for a wide range of sustainable developments and retrofit schemes, providing strategic legal advice on environmental impact assessments, embodied carbon, social value, biodiversity net gain, and other ESG considerations arising during the planning process. 
• Contaminated land liability and remediation: Dealing with contaminated land requires specialised legal support. We work closely with environmental consultants to ensure that technical and legal due diligence is aligned and put in place legal mechanisms to allocate risk and deliver remediation solutions for the benefit of your project and the wider environment. 
• Biodiversity and nature protection: We help clients navigate the legal frameworks which measure, value, and protect natural capital. We advise developers, landowners, local authorities, businesses, and investors on habitat conservation and species protection legislation as well as on the opportunities to generate long-term value through mechanisms such as conservation covenants. 
• Sustainable finance: Our real estate finance specialists secure development finance for a wide range of sustainable developments, from new developments with exceptional ESG credentials to deep retrofit schemes.
• EV and PV: We are highly experienced in advising developers, owners, occupiers, and suppliers on the provision of electric vehicle charging points (EV) and rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) as part of new developments and improvements to existing assets, as well as advising clients on acquiring and establishing EV and PV development platforms. 
• Sustainable construction: We work with clients in the development of new and repurposed buildings to deliver buildings assessed against rating systems such as BREEAM, WELL and NABERS, to set environmental and sustainability goals, to encourage sustainable methods of construction, and to build ESG into their contractual documentation. Delivering best in class environmental credentials targets a holistic approach to the development or re-development of buildings not only considering low energy and zero-carbon commitments but also social aspects to design. We offer legal insights into reduction of the carbon footprint of construction projects, the use of low-carbon materials and the use of on-site renewable energy and monitor the development of new standards, such as the proposed UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.
• Building safety and fire regulation: The social impact and effect on health and well-being is seen not only in the creation of buildings with plentiful outside and community spaces but also in the wider context of social responsibility. We advise on operational and compliance requirements across jurisdictions including those imposed by the Building Safety Act 2022, Building Regulations 2010 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022, and on the new legal duties and responsibilities arising out of the new regulatory environment.
• Governance and reporting: All businesses, including real estate businesses, are facing greater ESG scrutiny. We help clients to put robust governance arrangements in place and comply with their ESG-related reporting and disclosure obligations, including those which are specific to the real estate sector such as those for overseas entities and residential landlords. 
• Private property investments: We advise private wealth clients on investment into agricultural land, woodland, commercial forestry as part of a wider estate holding and on diversifying existing land holdings to obtain investment and income through environmental land management schemes and emerging markets, including those for carbon credits and biodiversity units.
• Heritage conservation: Preserving cultural heritage is vital. We offer legal advice to navigate heritage regulations, obtain listed building consents and ensure conservation of heritage assets in your development projects. 
• Competition compliance: We offer competition advice on all your ESG-related acquisitions of interests in land, including exclusivity considerations. We also offer advice on competition compliance with information sharing and collaborations between competitors when embarking on ESG-related projects.