This Charter outlines the core commitment that all stakeholders of retail property – owners, centre managers and occupiers – can make to address their sustainability impacts. It covers four key issues:	Download The Sustainability Charter in pdf format (350kb)
• Energy (and climate change)
• Waste
• Community
• Water

While sustainability covers a much wider set of issues, these four are chosen due to their significance, and the need to make the Charter immediately relevant and accessible to all BCSC members, including those for whom sustainability is still a relatively new concept. Although, the Charter, its measurements and specific actions are primarily focused at the operational side of running managed spaces or individual businesses, the subject of sustainability, however, needs to be addressed in other property activities, including acquisitions and disposal, and refurbishment development.

Underlying the four impact areas of this Charter is the need for strengthened engagement and collaboration between the owners and occupiers of property.

The themes below outline the basic aims and necessary actions to address and improve the sustainability of retail real estate. A common set of base-level actions, starting with measuring/assessing the impact, are provided – though each property should consider its own unique actions. In addition, performance thresholds derived from Upstream’s performance benchmarking are provided, enabling properties to think about their performance in relation to the minimum standards emerging from the industry leaders in the Upstream sustainability performance benchmarking.