Oxfordshire businesses going green given a helping hand to meet net zero carbon targets

Jennings, business park operators in Oxfordshire, has outlined a roadmap for its Chalgrove based Monument Park to be net zero carbon by 2030 and in turn help its tenant businesses achieve the same status.
 
Jennings itself is already close to achieving net zero carbon following a concerted reduction in its operational emissions and improved environmental practices across its managed offices. Now it aims to work with tenant businesses on Monument Park to apply best practice carbon reduction efforts and achieve a net zero carbon business park. 
 
It has set out eight guiding principles to assist, encourage and enable park tenants to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability en route to becoming net carbon zero:
  1. Energy – consumption reduction or switch to renewable providers, helped by using renewable energy produced on site

  2. Waste – zero to landfill, reduction of single-use products and packaging

  3. Water – consumption reduction, reuse where possible, refill station on-site

  4. Transport – encouraging and providing for electric vehicles (EV), car sharing and cycling

  5. Environment – improving wildlife habitats, increasing eco cleaning product usage

  6. Procurement – buying local and/or sustainable along supply chains

  7. Community – climate change awareness events and collaborations

  8. Sustainable decision making – guided by BCorp’s Triple Bottom Line model of people, planet, profit

Commenting on the announcement, Managing Director of Jennings, Paul Mabbutt, says: “We have to do this together if we’re to make a real change. We are right beside any business wanting to reduce their impact on the planet. We believe they’ll see the benefit of doing so within their own business.” 
 
The roadmap is a cumulation of 40 years’ of sustainability values at Monument Park and one of the outcomes of Jennings’ target of becoming a BCorp. Paul Mabbutt adds: “The environment has been a consideration at Jennings since the design of Monument Park and its green spaces in the 1980s. Forty years on, our commitment to providing a setting for businesses and their people to work in more sustainable ways is stronger than ever.”
 
Monument Park in Chalgrove hosts businesses as far ranging as food production and 3D printing across managed offices and rented units, including two shepherds huts by the lake, which has been created to provide a better environment for wildlife.