22 Feb Time to establish new ‘green’ habits, says panel at Real Estate Live
The BID was delighted to share a platform with industry leaders at Real Estate Live, discussing the topic of clean air and sustainability which are at the top of our businesses’ agendas.
Chaired by Nicola Mathers, CEO at Future of London, the panel session at 2pm on Monday 22 February, included speakers Patricia Bench, Hammersmith BID Director, Livia Caruso, Hammersmith BID Business Engagement Manager; Councillor Wesley Harcourt from Hammersmith & Fulham Council; Sean Moran of Helix Property; David Cockrell, e-cargobikes.com; and Libby Gibson, Transport for London.
Sean Moran of Helix Property focused on the importance of the green agenda, and spoke about some of the many improvements and initiatives that Hammersmith BID has made in the town centre. These included the Business Low Emissions Neighbourhood, situated under the flyover; increased greening, outdoor seating areas and the growing success of the BID’s Parcels not Pollution parcel delivery service. This was illustrated to delegates – since launch the service has made 3687 deliveries and cycled over 3000 miles, removing polluting delivery cars and vans from our streets for every parcel delivered.
Cllr Harcourt was able to put some of these initiatives in context with Hammersmith & Fulham’s Council’s strong focus on a Green Agenda for the borough. Initiatives in train include hundreds of electric car charging points being installed throughout the town centre; electric or hybrid-only bus routes; the City Tree in Lyric Square; and an agreement with Zipcar to move its fleet to electric.
The panel agreed that retail was undergoing great change – and that a completely new way of shopping had emerged since the beginning of the pandemic. This has included a huge uptake in online retail, and a subsequent increase in home deliveries, with all the associated logistical challenges. Harnessing this trend in a way that will not impact on the air quality improvements achieved over the past 12 months will be challenging, but will open up opportunities to change behaviour over the long term.
Libby Gibson, of TfL’s Travel Demand Management Team, is looking directly at the role of freight in congestion and pollution, and how to ameliorate this.
“Buying behaviours are changing. This is a habit-setting moment for consumers as we begin to open up, and by working together with the private and public sector, we can create conditions for a win-win ecommerce agenda”.
It’s perhaps time to think on a more local level – as Patricia Bench pointed out – businesses may be large, but are made up of individuals who can make independent decisions. It’s by influencing consumers and businesses alike that we will be able to steer our sustainability initiatives and ensure that the community has clean air and sustainability as a key part of their decision-making.