Environmental Report (continued)

Urban Greening & Bio-Diversity

Built Environment

As a local industry leader in environmentally considered design, our commercial constructions to date on the International Finance Centre are all ‘BREEAM Excellent’ rated, the world’s longest established sustainability certification method, for which certification reflects the buildings’ environmental, social and economic sustainability performance assessment.

The Bridging Island Plan (BIP) seeks to reduce emissions by introducing policies covering ‘design to deconstruction’ in the construction industry. JDC addresses this in its designs for IFC 6, South Hill and SWSH Waterfront, with focus on durability and flexibility throughout the planning and design phase of these projects, to ensure that even though a building’s use and outward appearance may change over time, the structure will have longevity.

Natural Environment

We already provide many areas of well maintained green open spaces at the Waterfront for the enjoyment of all and this will continue within our plans for the development at South West St Helier Waterfront, in which 56% of the proposed area will be open space, with an aim to reduce the urban heat island effect and build ecological resistance.

During the year we also continued our support of the natural environment in the following ways:

• Supporting the National Trust for Jersey & Jersey Trees for Life with our Corporate Sponsorship;

• Supporting Durrell’s Rewild Carbon impactful project;

• Hosting the Government of Jersey’s Climate Wall to raise awareness and reinforce the Climate Emergency.

The BIP has a focus on protecting and improving the natural environment and biodiversity, which we support and are considering ways to evidence this throughout our new developments, from pollinator patches on our Estate, to green/ brown roofed buildings at Horizon. Our Horizon development has also achieved level 3 in the Code for Sustainable Homes and has a thoughtful landscaping scheme, including trees and plants suitable for the local environment.

Our commitment will take even greater strides at SWSH Waterfront, the proposals for which met the Urban Greening factor (a tool outlined in The London Plan 2021 and now viewed as an international best practice), which evaluates and quantifies the amount and quality of greening in an urban context, seeking to ensure that new developments meaningfully contribute to urban green infrastructure. Rain gardens will collect and clean surface water run off and new trees will have ample soil allowance to ensure they can grow to maturity, providing habitat, carbon sequestration and urban cooling.

Sustainable Resources

The Government has set out a sustainable transport policy which JDC seeks to support, with its focus on infrastructure for alternative modes of transport in all of its developments, as well as electric car and bike charging points. Actions in this area to date include:

• Providing EVie Car spaces and charging points for electric cars at our Waterfront Car Park;

• Creating a parking zone within Marina Gardens for EVie electric bikes;

• Agreeing to continue virtual Board meetings for some of the scheduled meetings in the year, beyond Covid 19, to reduce unnecessary travel;

• Planning for e-car and e-bike charging points in all our future development projects.

JDC is committed to continual improvement, with the ambition that our future commercial buildings will achieve ‘BREEAM Outstanding’ standards and that our residential buildings will be built to ‘PASSIVHAUS’ principles, world leading energy efficiency and thermal performance standards.

As a developer, we do not act alone and we can influence and collaborate to build sustainable communities. We commit to engaging with likeminded partners right from the start.