For the third successive year, British Land has been honoured with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trust's (NAREIT) 2014 Global Recognition Leader in the Light Award, which showcases corporate excellence in long-term energy management practices. This is the highest achievement attainable for a non-US based listed real estate company in the competition and this year, British Land led a field of 50 member companies across all categories.

The awards criteria include results of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). Designed in 2009, GRESB's annual survey measures the environmental performance of property portfolios around the world.  Incorporating the survey results into the Leader into the Light award criteria enables participating companies to measure their performance against a global benchmark.

The survey is endorsed and closely watched by many of the world's largest institutional investors and demonstrates the global importance of sustainability issues.

British Land's achievements include:

  • 36% carbon reduction across our like-for-like portfolio over the last five years saving 37,000 tonnes of carbon equivalent to annual emissions from 5,700 homes.
  • £6.9million savings for occupiers over the last five years through energy reductions.
  • 93% of waste diverted from landfill at our properties and 83% on our developments, diverting 68,000 tonnes of waste from landfill.

This is the latest in a series of awards - CIBSE Client Energy Management and Building Operation 2014 Awards - for British Land which reinforces the company's leadership position in sustainability innovation, policies and practices.

Lucinda Bell, Finance Director and Director of Corporate Responsibility, British Land said, 'This is a great achievement and we're particularly pleased to have been honoured with this prestigious award for the third year in a row. It recognises our long term commitment to responsible business and our approach to embedding sustainability activities throughout our company operations'

Sheldon Groner, Executive Vice President, Finance and Operations, NAREIT said, ' I congratulate British Land and their dedicated team of professionals on winning the 2014 Global Leader in the Light award. Their sustained hard work and achievement in this area has to be recognised.'

Media Contact:
Helen Lo 07912 572619

Notes to Editors

About British Land
We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £17.8 billion (British Land share of which is £12.0 billion), as valued at 31 March 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 53% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across 66 retail parks, 85 superstores, 15 shopping centres, 12 department stores and 77 leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 47% of our portfolio is focused on London, We have an attractive mix of high‑quality buildings in well‑managed environments and a pipeline of development projects, which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.3 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share).

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com

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