Our focus is on reducing waste sent to landfill by increasing recycling, and improving water efficiency in our managed properties. In our development activities, we seek to incorporate the efficient use of resources into our design of buildings, and minimise resource use during construction.

In 2009, the proportion of waste recycled, reused or composted (through onsite and offsite segregation) reached 53% for UK shopping centres, 28% for French shopping centres and 40% for UK offices. Our target is that by 2013, this proportion will be at least 75% for UK shopping centres, 75% for UK offices and 50% for France.

A starting point for increasing our recycling rates was a waste audit programme which allowed us to identify issues and ways to resolve them. At the Oracle shopping centre, for example, we identified food waste to be a major issue as it contaminates material which could otherwise be recycled easily. We reviewed five solutions taking into account space, energy, water, cost and time. We have set up a new waste programme and in the first three months have been able to divert almost 70 tonnes of food waste from landfill.

We also improved our understanding of our water consumption over the year, carrying out an audit of our managed properties (see case study). Following this study, we have set ourselves a long-term target to reduce water consumption. In France, where we have completed water audits, we aim to reduce landlord and tenant consumption of water by 10% by 2015 against a 2010 baseline. In the UK office portfolio we have identified a benchmark based on consumption per worker (Chartered Institute of Buildings Services Engineers Guide L) and are targeting best practice against this benchmark, also by 2015. We have not set a target for the UK shopping centre portfolio as no benchmark is available, and will be investigating an appropriate target during 2010.

A number of targets related to the achievement of external benchmarks, including BREEAM, HQE and Part L building regulations. These are annual targets, some of which were deemed not applicable during the year, as no developments entered design stage. Going forward, we have decided to no longer include these benchmarks as annual targets, instead creating a separate “Hammerson Design Standard”, which we have published as part of this report. This sets out standards we intend to achieve for all our developments, alongside scheme-specific requirements set out in our internal Sustainability Implementation Plans. In the managed portfolio, we are rolling out ISO 14001 (see case study) and have set ourselves a target for 2010 to achieve this rating in 2010 for one UK shopping centre. We also achieved BREEAM ratings for existing assets, including our head office at 10 Grosvenor Street which gained an Excellent rating. Our retail park portfolio is managed by Workman, an external company, in accordance with ISO 14001.