The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) is stepping up its lobbying work within the European Commission to highlight the economic importance of the shopping centre industry and the pioneering work that many of the sector’s leading companies are doing in developing energy-efficient centres to reduce costs and cut carbon emissions.

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) is stepping up its lobbying work within the European Commission to highlight the economic importance of the shopping centre industry and the pioneering work that many of the sector’s leading companies are doing in developing energy-efficient centres to reduce costs and cut carbon emissions.

The European Parliament has already acknowledged the growing investment in sustainability that the shopping centre industry is making. Last year a new international sustainability standard for retail property developments across Europe was launched by independent third party certifications and approvals body BRE Global, supported by ICSC.

The new BREAAM standard is now undergoing pilot testing on large-scale shopping centre development projects by a number of developers including Redevco, Multi Development and ING Real Estate in Germany, France, Spain, Italy Turkey and Sweden. Other ICSC members including Corio, Steen & Strom, MFI Management, ECE Projektmanagement and Sonae Sierra also supported development of the new standard with finance and expertise. The outcomes of the pilot projects will be assessed and incorporated into the standard later this year.

This new version of BREAAM aims to provide an accepted environmental performance benchmark for new retail buildings across Europe.

ICSC is also participating in the development of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. In February this year, after discussions with representatives of ICSC, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a Spanish Member of the European Parliament, tabled a number of amendments to the proposed directive, drafted to ensure that it provides a workable framework within which the shopping centre industry can pursue its sustainability goals. Vidal-Quadras authored the original Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) in 2002 which is now the centerpiece of the European Union’s buildings strategy.

Proposals are being develop to extend the Eco label used for products and services to buildings. ICSC Sustainability Working Group members have already expressed their concern that this extra label would cause confusion as there are already highly regarded criteria, such as the BREAAM standard, providing a respected and audited label for buildings. Derk Welling from Redevco will represent ICSC in the Eco Label for Buildings working group.