Our CR objectives support long-term growth, helping us build better relationships with our customers and local communities and adding value across the business.

This is your first year as Hammerson’s Chief Executive. What changes can we expect to see in the Company’s sustainability strategy?

You cannot separate sustainability from wider business strategy. When I took over as Chief Executive in October 2009 I made it clear that we would continue to focus on providing exceptional buildings, managing those buildings extremely well, and building relationships with our stakeholders. What I am changing is our approach: I want us to focus much more on our customers, and I want our reputation for property management to equal our reputation for development. These objectives are designed to support long-term business growth. They are inherently supported by our CR objectives: our focus on reducing energy consumption, for example, is simply good property management as it reduces costs for ourselves and our customers. Similarly, our engagement with local communities; our retail skills training programmes; our work with retailers in designing low-energy stores: all of these initiatives help us to build strong relationships with our customers, and allow us to add value so we become more than just a property supplier.

When did you personally become involved in Hammerson’s sustainability activity?

I have been a member of the CR Group, which sets and monitors Hammerson’s sustainability strategy and targets, since 2007. Before this, I was involved in CR implementation, approving and monitoring capital expenditure for sustainability initiatives as part of my role as UK Retail Managing Director. I now chair the CR Group, and as Chief Executive have ultimate responsibility at Board level for ensuring CR policies are upheld.

2009 was a year of intense activity for the Company, with significant change in the composition of your investment portfolio. How do you deal with the sustainability challenges posed by a high level of trading activity?

In 2009 we sold eight assets. We also opened a major shopping centre development in Aberdeen and an office building in the City of London; acquired a prime shopping centre in Glasgow and a retail development in Marseille. Both developments completed in 2009 were designed and built according to our strict internal sustainability guidelines, and have been awarded good environmental ratings.

When we acquire a building, we include sustainability criteria as part of our due diligence process, and when we have completed our purchase, we start to put in place the programmes we run elsewhere in our portfolio. In this way, we reduce the impact of acqusitions on Group environmental performance. This is particularly important in the context of the introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitments Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES) in the UK and a Carbon Tax in France. At the same time, we are setting up tenant “Green Groups” at our offices and shopping centres so that if we sell an asset, there is a mechanism in place so that sustainability initiatives continue to be implemented.