Sustainability at the Government Property Agency

Sustainability and ESG are central to the GPA’s mission, running through its strategic objectives. Accelerating to Net Zero set in response to HMG’s Greening Government Commitments is one of the GPA’s four key objectives, delivery of which is underpinned annually in business plans and KPIs.

In February 2022 the GPA Board approved its Sustainability Plan which set out the changes required to sustainably operate the GPA’s estate including their Net Zero Programme, as well as energy use and water and waste management. A Sustainability Committee was subsequently set up in November 2022 to provide strategic leadership for sustainability across the GPA.

In April 2023, the GPA published its first ESG report, setting out priority areas, progress against these and plans going forward. This represented a key milestone, demonstrating the GPA’s commitment and transparency on its ESG journey to develop a property portfolio that minimises the impact on the environment.

UKGI, in its Shareholder Representative capacity supports the GPA via the business planning process, helping develop robust, quantitative KPIs across the government’s office portfolio, such as carbon reductions (“tCO2e”) and decarbonisation of the Whitehall heat network, enabling an objective assessment of progress to be made. Progress is monitored at regular intervals by the GPA Board and via bi-monthly Sustainability Committee meetings held by management with ESG focused sessions.

The GPA’s environmental work is underpinned by industry standards via membership of the UK Green Buildings Council and Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. Delivery of a more sustainable office estate for government will remain a priority for the GPA as it finalises further environmental strategies, progresses the decarbonisation of the Whitehall heat network and delivers its project pipeline of Net Zero interventions.