,Protecting the environment and reducing carbon emissions has never been higher on the agenda for businesses in the wake of COP26.
So Quorum Park is playing its part, by taking the initiative to team up with a university postgraduate to tackle its own carbon footprint as part of a new Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) policy.
We are working with Godwin Buluku from Nigeria, who is studying for his MSc Safety, Health and Environmental Management with Advanced Practice qualification at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. His ongoing Masters research, which comes as Quorum has launched an ESG policy written by Laura McGrath, Quorum Park’s Events and Sustainability Lead, is helping to tackle climate change and identify what can effectively be done before the impact on the environment becomes irreversible.
The policy and an accompanying action plan lay out targets and sustainable aims, allowing Quorum to evolve, nurture and improve the park’s environment while strengthening links with the surrounding community. This includes buildings constructed to BREEAM excellency standards and green spaces being planted with more than 1,000 trees.
Godwin brings a strong background in environmental studies to his work for Quorum – he has been involved with a number of projects back home around the clean up of hazardous spills, oil-polluted land and petroleum storage tanks.
Indeed, in his recent ‘General Methodology and approach for carbon accounting and reporting’ report for Quorum Park, he identifies climate change as a pressing global issue and urges governments and businesses to formulate policies to tackle the issues. This includes implementing initiatives that put the UK on a pathway towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while minimising any adverse impacts on the economy or society.
He’s working on a project – initiated by Laura – to enable Quorum Park to better collect and collate information about its carbon footprint and identify ways to reduce long-term emissions, creating an even healthier and life-enriching environment for businesses and people to enjoy.
In another report by Godwin for Quorum Park, on Benchmarking of (UK-based) business parks as real estate services for commercial tenants on sustainability issues’, effective and meaning (including international) benchmarking is flagged up as a good business instrument for business park owners / investors and their (prospective) clients.
Godwin said: “I’m excited to be working with the Quorum team on this important project. It’s really beneficial for them to come to the university to engage with students in real life work situations and look at how research knowledge can be applied to help companies move forward. It’s a win-win situation for both parties.”
Laura added: “We are committed to playing our part in reducing our carbon footprint and Godwin’s work is important in helping us to do this. Cooperation with university students can pay dividends, bringing fresh ideas to tackling critical climate issues and ways to achieve net zero carbon emissions. It plays to our ESG policy, which broadens the definition of sustainability to wider topics including social inequalities and community action.”