Regular Life-Cycle Assessments (LCAs) are a key component of Gazeley's Environmental Procurement and Management System (EPMS).

An effective environmental strategy cannot be developed without a clear understanding of environmental impacts.

Nearly all of Gazeley's environmental impacts result from warehouse development. Distribution buildings range in size up to 100,000 sq m (one million sq ft) or more (about 20 football fields under one roof). They incorporate many complex technologies and high environmental impact materials, such as concrete and steel. Since 2003, we have worked with leading LCA consultants to help us understand their environmental impacts.

Building construction materials and impacts often vary by country, so we conduct LCAs in each of our operating regions. This gives us a baseline from which to develop our environmental improvement strategies.

Clearly understanding impacts allow us to analyse and prioritise mitigation options and thus develop the most effective improvement strategies.

learly understanding impacts allow us to analyse and prioritise mitigation options and thus develop the most effective improvement strategies.

The environmental impacts of all building life phases are assessed - raw material extraction, manufacture, transport, construction, use, maintenance and end of building life. The LCAs assess all key impact areas, including climate change, energy, resource depletion, water consumption, waste, acid rain, ozone depletion, petrochemical smog, eutrophication, toxicity to humans, toxicity to ecosystems, and mineral extraction.

This information allows us to help our customers understand how additional investment can maximise environmental improvement.

The following table shows LCA results from an assessment of two Gazeley's warehouses, one at G.Park Workshop (UK) and one at G.Park Chaponnay (France).

Gazeley's LCAs show that the greatest environmental impact of a warehouse occurs in the use phase. Impacts of the use phase as a percentage of total environmental impact over the life of a warehouse can range from 65% to as high as 90%, depending upon building location, size, climate, operating procedures and technologies employed.

This presents several challenges.Gazeley usually sells its warehouses, or builds them on behalf of others, who may in turn lease them out to other parties. As a result, we often have little ability to influence environmental impacts during the highest impact warehouse life phase.

To address this, we are working more closely with our customers to help them operate their warehouses in the most efficient, lowest impact manner. More importantly, we build high efficiency and superior environmental performance into our warehouses. This minimizes environmental impacts under all operating scenarios.

LCAs are done on a regular basis to assess performance improvement, gauge the impact of new materials, technologies and construction processes, and ensure ongoing implementation of the most effective environmental improvement strategy.

"In Mexico, for example, the energy consumption of distribution facilities is nothing like as significant as it is in Europe - buildings have little lighting, and no heating," says Fenton-Jones. "So there, we are focusing on material science in terms of reducing harmful toxicity impacts to people and earth ecology and majoring on delivering sites and buildings which celebrate water as a valuable natural resource."