Our aim is to engage with our customers on an ongoing basis to understand their needs and identify ways of improving their and our environmental and social performance.

2009 represented a challenging year for customer engagement. Despite signing 328 new green leases, taking the total number of leases in the portfolio covered by a green clause up to 698, other objectives were not met. In a year of weak consumer spending and uncertain business prospects, many retailers were focused on the immediate trading environment and therefore discussions on initiatives such as the exemplar sustainability fit-out were deferred. In 2010 we will be engaging with retailers on the introduction of the Better Building Partnership’s (BBP) green lease memorandum of understanding, which can be attached to existing leases.

Hammerson has also identified that while retailers are keen to improve their sustainability performance, it is partly dependent on the behaviour of store staff. Our solution is to create Green Groups at our assets, to encourage engagement with sustainability initiatives at store level. We made progress with this target over the year and will be introducing more Green Groups in 2010.