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TFT CPD sessions: Holbein Gardens: reducing embodied carbon from design to delivery

On November 29th at RSA House in London, TFT hosted its ‘Decarbonisation: the future for tomorrow’s buildings’ session, inviting over 100 clients and industry partners to learn and share their views on one of our industry’s biggest challenges.  

You can find the write up of our first session of the morning, on gathering and using sustainability data in the course of property transactions.

Session two was a case study discussion about Holbein Gardens, a landmark refurbishment for our client Grosvenor.  

Mat Lown, Chief Knowledge & ESG Officer at TFT, and Pradumn Pamidighantam, Senior Architect at Barr Gazetas led us through the key features, challenges and learnings from the project, with a focus on how this project reduced embodied carbon from design to delivery, and ultimately created a desirable building ready for the modern occupier market (and net-zero carbon operation). 

Holbein Gardens was transformed from being a tired 1980s office building into a sustainable asset and a pioneering case study for low embodied carbon (even exceeding LETI’s pioneer standards). The sustainable development brief which TFT co-created with Grosvenor set the stage for this work, encompassing themes such as climate resilience, social benefit, connectivity, green spaces, resource use and more. 

But how was this brief taken forward into the design?

Pradumn outlined specific interventions at Holbein Gardens, emphasizing a holistic approach for the building, from a blue roof for sustainable drainage, to openable windows connected to air quality sensors, the use of lime plaster with low VOCs, and the reuse of raised access floors and materials with high recycled content. 

The discussion then delved into circularity, with a focus on the reuse of structural steel. Mat and Pradumn highlighted the importance of a hierarchical approach at the outset of these works, focussing first on retaining existing materials, reusing onsite or offsite, and recycling the remaining materials.  

For Holbein Gardens, another Grosvenor site in Bermondsey was identified as a potential location to extract steel from. HTS visited the site, identified the steels that could reused and tagged them. These got dismantled and sent up to Cleveland Steel to be tested, cut and made ready for Holbein Gardens.   

In turn, there was also some steel in the former roof of Holbein Gardens which went through a similar process, and some of that found a new lease of life forming new risers in the building.  

And Holbein Gardens steel ended up on yet another project, forming the new roof works at Fivefields (a recent project Barr Gazetas completed for Grosvenor).   

One of the greatest challenges facing re-use is storage. For portfolio owners like Grosvenor, the ambition to reuse significant amounts of steel was made possible by having other sites to provide it. For those who don’t have that availability, they need to engage with providers like Cleveland Steel (part of the Holbein Gardens project team) to determine what is available or might soon become available.  

From re-use of old materials, to embracing newer materials. Mat and Pradumn explored the use of Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) on Holbein Gardens, emphasizing Grosvenor’s openness to an explorative approach. The commitment to CLT at an early project stage set the ambition for the scheme, while the reduced scale of CLT within building and supplementary measures like sprinkler systems helped insurance appetite for the building.  

Mat underscored the need for scaling up the use of CLT in the industry, acknowledging challenges such as fire safety concerns. Despite the challenges, both panellists were optimistic that industry initiatives, exemplar projects like Holbein Gardens, and wider industry understanding would contribute to wider CLT adoption. 

The session concluded with lessons learned from Holbein Gardens, emphasizing the importance of awareness, openness to re-use aesthetics, proper due diligence on available materials, and the potential for a network to facilitate developers in embracing re-use practices.  

Every step forwards on these matters will help more buildings find a new lease of life and drive down our industry’s huge embodied carbon load. 

Are you interested in taking new approaches to refurbishment and retrofit projects? Our team is here to help you use more sustainable materials and construction techniques to create better buildings. Get in touch here.

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Session one kicked off our event with discussion on gathering and using sustainability data in the course of property transactions.

Session three discussed how to create a culture of continual improvement and knowledge-sharing across project teams and organisations.  

TFT CPD sessions: Scaling success: from pioneer project to business-as-usual

In securing a better future for today’s buildings, we need to push the standards of best practice or pioneering achievements, while also sharing knowledge and learning together to raise the standards of ‘business-as-usual’.

That was the topic of our third session on ‘Decarbonisation: the future for today’s buildings’, which brought together over 100 clients and industry partners to learn and share their views on one of our industry’s biggest challenges. 

In case you missed our previous write-ups, have a look at:  

• Our first session of the morning, on gathering and using sustainability data in the course of property transactions
• Our case study discussion about Holborn Gardens, a landmark refurbishment for our client Grosvenor

Panel overview: 

For our third panel of the day, we welcomed:  

• Nida Rehman, Senior Development Manager and Head of Development Standards at LGIMRA 
• Jacqui Allen, Head of Built Asset Consultancy at TFT 
• Martin Smith, Director of Project Management at TFT 

Together, they took different approaches to the discussion on continual improvement and knowledge-sharing, from the in-house client perspective to the project team and the consultants’ view.  

As a major investor, with a mantra of ‘inclusive capitalism’, how does L&G approach knowledge-sharing among its development and asset management team?  

Nida kicked off by explaining 3 pillars to strategy for continual improvement.  

First was the importance of understanding the need for both large and smaller interventions, advancements and instances of best practice. For an organisation like L&G, applying each progressive success more widely is a practical way to make real and consistent progress. This is applicable to our industry as a whole: focus not only on high-performing but highly-demanding new developments; and take every opportunity to upgrade existing stock too.  

The second and third pillars both relate to breaking down siloes. Externally, L&G processes like project sign-off gateways and annual team conferences establish continual feedback loops between their project teams; and help share L&G’s vision, culture and objectives. Internally, L&G’s centralised sustainability team provides strategic direction to its asset management and development teams, setting common goals and helping teams to share learnings from one workstream to support others.  

While some clients have systems like these in place, many do not. And as Martin noted, often a project team’s culture will dictate whether or not consistent progress is made against a client’s brief, as some sustainability accreditations are incompatible when you get down to the detail; you need a project team who can review, explain and come up with the best pragmatic response to the site constraints.

TFT supported L&G on its refurbishment of Unit 4, Watchmoor Point, turning a tired warehouse asset into a leading example of a net zero carbon industrial building. The project succeeded by using the philosophy of cumulative improvements and detailed interventions across every aspect of the works. By sharing the learnings of that project more widely, L&G has followed Watchmore Point with a series of projects which build on its success and scale those learnings up into a business-as-usual process.  

It was only fair for Nida to turn the question back to Martin and Jacqui, asking them about TFT’s approach to knowledge sharing within its team.  

Jacqui echoed Nida’s points about making cumulative improvements and being proactive about sharing data and bringing teams together under a common goal. As a B Corp, TFT’s services and business operations are directed towards maximum positive impacts, which follows our own trend towards blending sustainability strongly through all our work.  

That might include launching new hybrid services like Green Dilapidations, or applying a more dedicated specialist input to processes like TDD (see session 1). But it also involves challenging clients and inviting pilot studies to try new things, such as engaging clients with a new approach to planned maintenance management, where the industry norm is still to replace products like-for-like with little consideration for decarbonisation and efficiency along the way.  

What would each panellist have you take from the session?  

Nida emphasised the need for regular feedback and communication links between client sustainability and development leads and those technical experts and project delivery teams implementing technology. This joined up communication enables innovations to be rapidly assessed, adopted and rolled out as business as usual on a larger scale. 

Martin encouraged the audience to think big, stand out, and bring in new perspectives to see how ‘boring’ projects can be an opportunity to make progress and do something different you can learn from…

Jacqui wrapped up the session with a call on everybody to rethink standard practice, and understand that every stage of the building lifecycle presents an opportunity for decarbonisation and improvement. 

This is very much the idea behind our conference – finding new ways to unlock progress on decarbonising existing buildings. The challenges remain, but will progress with combined effort and commitment to share knowledge as we go.  

CTA 

If you missed these sessions and would like to know more about any of the topics discussed, please contact info@tftconsultants.com, and we will put you in touch with the right people to continue the conversation.  

Is ‘Gill v Lees News’ a thorn in the side for tenants? 

Tenants wanting to renew their leases under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, in circumstances where their landlords may wish to object to that statutory right, probably now face a new and potentially onerous hurdle.

Gill v Lees News Ltd [2023] EWCA Civ 1178 established that minor disrepair during the lease term, even if subsequently remedied, can be a factor taken into account by the court when deciding whether a new lease ought not be granted. 

Here’s what tenants and landlords can take from the case:

Tenants:

• If you think you might want to renew your lease in the future, then consider the state of repair of the premises now and on an on-going basis.
• Take steps to remedy any existing disrepair.
• Consider a programme of planned maintenance to ensure the risk of future disrepair is minimised
• Consider services installations as well as building fabric
• Enter into service contracts for the services installations
• Keep records of service and maintenance expenditure
• Don’t encourage your landlord to inspect any existing disrepair at the premises!
• If your landlord does identify disrepair, remedy it quickly and effectively and be able to show a future court that you have done so

Landlords:

• Inspect premises frequently to identify and record disrepair
• Notify tenants of disrepair, potentially via an interim schedule of dilapidations
• If the tenant does not react to an interim schedule of dilapidations then consider a repairs notice (a Jervis v Harris notice) to show the future court how unwilling the tenant was to comply with its repair obligations
• Keep records of non-compliance

Dominic Thomas

Dominic is TFT’s Director of CDM Services and is responsible for managing the team of CDM consultants at the London office in the delivery of CDM Principal Designer, Principal Designer Advisor and Client CDM Advisor services to support Clients, Developers and Designers in compliance with the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015. He has a background in managing CDM teams at multi-disciplinary consultancies, where he has worked alongside colleagues in architecture, engineering, project management and surveying.

As a full Member of the Chartered Institute of Building, he is a multi-skilled construction professional and CDM consultant, qualified in construction, occupational health and safety, fire safety and building safety. He is an advocate for building safety and has supported his teams and Clients in preparation for the introduction of the Building Safety Act and its secondary legislation.

Dominic’s experience spans a range of sectors including residential, commercial real estate, aviation, infrastructure, modular construction, demolition, refurbishment and conversion works, and remedial works including fire safety remedials and recladding.

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TFT establishes an Employee Ownership Trust

TFT has become an employee-owned business, having established its Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) following 19 years as a Partnership (LLP).

The change to EOT status marks TFT’s 50^th year and comes with two commitments for the future: to share ownership and benefit for the whole TFT team, and to deliver on the firm’s values without external conflict or compromise.

The news follows TFT’s B Corp certification in December 2022. An ownership structure for shared benefit is part of TFT’s continual progression towards its B Corp goals: improving business performance, accountability and transparency.

As part of the new corporate structure, TFT Partners are now Senior Directors of the company, and take the same ownership status as all employees to share equally in the firm’s success via its Trust.

TFT’s leadership remains unchanged, but take C-Suite titles, with Alistair Allison remaining CEO, Alan Pemberton as Chair, Dan Henn as Chief Growth Officer, Seth Love-Jones as Chief Operations Officer and Mat Lown as Chief Knowledge & ESG Officer.

The decision is significant to TFT’s future, as CEO Alistair Allison says:

“The Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) is real milestone for us, allowing the team to share equally in TFT’s success and future growth. It also means that our long-term commitments – to our team’s security, our clients’ quality of work, and our wider ambition to create a better built environment – are protected from possible external conflict.

“TFT has enjoyed a long life of independence which has become one of our defining assets. Our previous Partnership structure was crucial to preserve that independence. The Partnership has also made for a smooth transition to the EOT, which brings additional reassurance for our team and our clients that we will be independent for a long time to come.

“We continue to invest in long-term progress, resilience and sustainability. In recent years that has meant innovating our services and broadening our expertise to accelerate decarbonisation. While the challenges of the coming decades are less clear, our team’s ideas, skills and passion will be essential to meet them, and the EOT structure can empower more ideas and perspectives on our future.

“As we celebrate reaching 50 years in business, we continue to evaluate our role in the decades to come. How should TFT benefit our team, our clients, our industry and the wider world? We all have a long way to go in improving our positive impacts on the future. This shared ownership structure is the best way to remain focused on those goals without conflict or compromise.”

Alistair Allison, CEO, TFT

Staff Stories – Louis Junior Maycock

Mill Road, Cambridge

The property is a retail building on a high street in Cambridge. TFT provided dilapidations advice and negotiation services to support the occupier in relocating from the premises. The occupier had previously held a 15 year lease and left the premises following a strip out project.

Our approach to dilapidations is to start with the facts and not deviate from them. Our team looked and assessed the condition before the lease was signed and used this as a basis for assessing the repairing liability. As this unit had a retail occupier, the tenants’ alterations played a major part and agreeing the extent of alterations was pivotal.

We were able to agree an exit with the landlord in a timely manner and to the satisfaction of the client. This approach allowed our client to focus on other interests. On behalf of the client, TFT agreed a settlement at 53% of the initial claim. The project also presented an opportunity to move away from the existing gas supply to a fully electric HVAC system. The system supported the occupiers net zero commitments, and the project reached an EPC of ‘B’ with 38 points.

Green Dilapidations: more sustainable commercial property leases

Commercial building owners and occupiers are increasingly looking to fulfil their net zero carbon ambitions with measures beyond more sustainable development and energy performance practices. In particular, the current property leasing cycle and non-sustainable dilapidations processes are generating quantities of waste and carbon, which can be mitigated with a more sustainable approach: Green Dilapidations.

TFT’s Green Dilapidations services are designed to help clients reduce the additional material, resources and cost associated with repeatedly fitting out and stripping out commercial property spaces over their lifetime. Taking a long-term view of tenancy, occupier and market requirements, we help our clients benefit from a more efficient, sustainable dilapidations process for both landlord and tenant.

Our support is rooted in facilitating better collaboration between stakeholders. That means the landlord and tenant of course, but also agents and the wider supply chain. Our sustainable building knowledge, commercial understanding and dilapidations expertise helps to formalise a better system as a whole.

We see a greater appetite from our landlord and tenant clients to adopt Green Dilapidations services. A notable occupier client is one of the leading property litigation practices, who we are helping to exit their existing offices in this way.

It’s not just for offices either, and can be used for retail, industrial and other commercial property sectors.

We’re here to help you do dilapidations in a better way. Get in touch with Jon Rowling to discuss how our dilapidations and sustainability expertise can help reduce the carbon impacts of your property lifecycle.

Download our brief service outline here.

Martin Smith

Martin’s project management approach adopts inclusive practices to drive innovation in project teams to rise to the challenge of client briefs to meet ever increasing regulation, ESG targets and sustainability accreditations.

He has a strong track record of delivering large complex projects covering refurbishment and redevelopment of existing structures with retained structures and facades in central London. Martin has managed disputes through to agreements with many tier 1 contractors and applies due diligence through his building pathology knowledge being a Chartered building surveyor and has represented developers, landlords and tenants.

Martin has often worked for several key clients; GPE, M&G RE, City of London Corporation, Portman Estates, The Crown Estate, B-flexion (Crosstree), Motcomb Estates, Quilter Plc, Global Holdings and CBRE IM. Martin has worked closely with end users to understand their key objectives, working across various sectors including commercial office, residential, retail and life sciences.

Martin previously worked at Buro Four and was responsible for leading the commercial offices sector and successfully delivered Quilter Plc’s new headquarter building at Senator House.

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