Prologis Inc is extending its UK partnerships with climate change charity ‘Cool Earth’ and sustainability certification company ‘The Planet Mark’ to its European operations, as part of a pioneering initiative to measure and reduce whole-life carbon (WLC) emissions in all its new logistics buildings. Under the programme, Prologis will work with Cool Earth to fund the protection of rainforests to mitigate the equivalent of unavoidable carbon emissions in its new developments across Europe and, in this way, help protect an area of rainforest 31 times larger than the size of each building.
In the UK, Prologis was the first industrial company to introduce a WLC program in 2008. Today, every new building the company develops is subject to The Planet Mark Sustainability Certification. Over the past decade, 40 Prologis developments have been certified in the UK, which amounts to an overall reduction of over 250,000 tons of CO₂ – the equivalent of more than 617 million miles driven by an average family vehicle.
Ben Bannatyne, President Prologis Europe, said: “Prologis has been a pioneer in the UK in curbing and offsetting its ‘whole-life’ or ‘embodied carbon’ – the carbon emitted during the construction of a new building. Whole-life carbon can be reduced through good design, but it cannot be eliminated altogether. In partnership with Cool Earth and The Planet Mark, we have gone beyond net-zero in terms of mitigating our whole-life carbons in the UK and have already helped to protect 12,500 acres of rainforest in Peru and Papua New Guinea – the equivalent of 50 square kilometres, or xx the size of Vatican City in Rome. Now that we have extended the initiative to mainland Europe, we see huge potential to make an even bigger contribution to reducing our carbon footprint there and providing more help to the development of sustainable rainforest communities.”
By working with Cool Earth, Prologis supports the people who live in the rainforest and protects the trees that we rely on globally to store carbon, produce freshwater, and shield diverse species of plants and animals.
The company makes the donation to Cool Earth at the outset of each new development project precisely because the rainforest is so fragile with a view to supporting the preservation of this ecosystem as soon as possible.
Prologis is already helping rainforest communities to lock in 3.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by protecting 3.2 million trees and so offsetting an estimated 600,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. As part of this partnership, the company has also educated 7,500 pupils at schools close to its logistics parks through sustainability workshops. Delivered by The Eden Project, these workshops are offered free of charge to local schools and aim to help children understand the important role they can play in protecting the planet.
Prologis made the announcement on World Environment Day (5TH June 2020) as part of its goal to raise sustainability standards across the European industrial property sector and support the United Nation’s Decade of Action campaign.
