Janus Henderson’s UK Property PAIF fund has pledged to become net zero carbon across its portfolio by 2030.
The property authorised investment fund will strive to achieve an average energy use intensity across the portfolio in line with targets set by the UK Green Building Council.
This will apply to buildings owned by the portfolio in 2030, excluding those owned for less than three years.
Residual landlord electricity consumption is to be provided by a renewable power purchase agreement. The fund’s renewable energy agreement will also be offered to all tenants, while carbon offsets will be purchased for all residual gas consumption.
Sustainability has been a significant focus for the fund since 2012, when its first on-site renewable energy system was installed.
Since then, the fund has achieved annual performance gains evaluated by the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), the benchmark for sustainability property performance.
Ainslie McLennan, fund manager at Janus Henderson UK Property PAIF, said: “Our further commitment is that by 2035 all buildings that have been owned by the fund for more than five years will meet the net zero carbon definition as set by the UK Green Building Council.
“This will apply to all operational energy use within the buildings owned by the fund, including that directly procured by tenants.
“In order to achieve this goal, the fund’s investment team will need to work closely with tenants to establish net zero carbon plans for the assets that they occupy. It will also be necessary to monitor tenant consumption in order to ratify progress,” McLennan commented.
In instances where tenants are wary of giving consent to this energy monitoring, their energy consumption will be estimated and offset the resultant carbon emissions.
“This is very much a short-term measure to help ensure that all assets within the portfolio are covered by the fund’s zero carbon commitment,” McLennan added.
Roxana Isaiu, director of real estate at GRESB, said: “Since 2013, the fund’s score has increased by 102% and it is now a 4* fund, outperforming both the GRESB average and its peer group average. We encourage and support efforts by the Real Estate industry to achieve net zero carbon.”
