'To do nothing is not an option' -
HRH Prince Charles Urges Property Industry to Join Leaders in Tackling Climate Change

'To do nothing is not an option' - HRH Prince Charles Urges Property Industry to Join Leaders in Tackling Climate Change.



Two major British developers, British Land and SEGRO, have today used Think 07 to pledge the use of carbon offsetting, following a call made by Prince Charles live from St James's Palace urging the property and construction industries to take action and change the way they do business.



As part of his May Day Business Summit on Climate Change, the Prince of Wales this morning stressed the "huge power that business has to do good", saying that, "The crisis of climate change is far too urgent, and discussion simply isn't enough. The reason we're all here is because, if the scientific consensus is right, we need to act very rapidly indeed."



In line with The Prince of Wales' view that there are three key areas that businesses need to address, including tackling carbon emissions, encouraging suppliers and business customers to do likewise and thirdly, designing products and services which will help their customers to reduce emissions, British Land has announced that it is aiming to become carbon neutral as early as the start of the financial year 2007/8.



Underlining the extent of the property industry's commitment to tackling climate change, SEGRO Chief Executive Ian Coull also announced at Think today that SEGRO has adopted whole-life costing for all of its new developments, including using only brownfield sites at accessible locations.




The Prince of Wales address praised the measures already being implemented by the industry, highlighting "what a difference could be made if genuine sustainable materials and traditional building techniques could be used in new buildings, and if we could relearn how to create liveable, human-scale communities."