Sharing and collaborating with partners, customers and competitors is helping to deliver sustainability, says Jonathan Fenton-Jones Gazeley's Global Procurement and Sustainability Director.

The expansion of our business into new territories and our pioneering sustainability efforts mean we have begun to realise our vision of becoming a global provider of logistics space in a sustainable way.

We form strategic partnerships with our customers and provide them with leadingedge buildings and services around the world. Our customers increasingly require sustainable warehouses, not only to reduce operating costs, but also to improve environmental performance, community relations, and colleague well-being.

Gazeley's sustainable warehouses exceed all regulatory requirements. Over the past five years, we have built 1.2 million sq m (13 million sq ft) of eco efficient, sustainable warehouse space that is reducing our customers' operating costs by £930,000 (€1.3 million) per year.

Our commitment to corporate responsibility and sustainability began over 20 years ago. At Magna Park Lutterworth (UK) we have planted over one million trees, pioneered the use of environmental technologies such as biological waste water treatment, and created 7,500 jobs since the development began in 1987.

In 2001, we recognised growing environmental concerns would make sustainability a major driver of success in the distribution sector. Anticipating market demand we set out to design and build the most environmentally advanced warehouses in the world. Working with a team led by world-renowned architects William McDonough and Chetwoods, we combined leading-edge site assessment tools, materials, technologies and construction processes into a development template for the most environmentallyadvanced warehouses in the world. We called this 'Eco-Template'.

Now all our eco-buildings integrate environmental features and renewable energy technologies at no extra cost to our customers. As a result, Gazeley buildings provide superior performance on energy efficiency, work environment, carbon reduction, renewable energy usage, water usage, habitat preservation and other important environmental and social parameters, while lowering operating costs for all of our customers, everywhere we work.

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