Jennings’ Monument Park outlines roadmap to net zero carbon

• Jennings aims to achieve its target through eight guiding principles
• Oxfordshire’s rural business park portfolio is focused on supporting its community to achieve net zero carbon collectively 
• Roadmap underpinned by sharing learnings and best practices, collaboration and measurement

Jennings, business park operators in Oxfordshire, has outlined a roadmap for its Chalgrove based Monument Park to be net zero carbon by 2030 and in turn help its tenant businesses achieve the same status.

View: Jennings Net Zero Journey Watch: the Jennings vision

Jennings itself is already close to achieving net zero carbon following a concerted reduction in its operational emissions and improved environmental practices. Now it aims to work with the businesses on Monument Park to apply best practice carbon reduction efforts and achieve a net zero carbon business park. 

It has set out eight guiding principles to assist, encourage and enable park tenants to achieve environmental, economic and social sustainability en route to becoming net carbon zero:

1. Energy – consumption reduction or switch to renewable providers, helped by using renewable energy produced on site
2. Waste – zero to landfill, reduction of single-use products and packaging
3. Water – consumption reduction, reuse where possible, refill station on-site
4. Transport – encouraging and providing for electric vehicles (EV), car sharing and cycling
5. Environment – improving wildlife habitats, increasing eco cleaning product usage
6. Procurement – buying local and/or sustainable along supply chains
7. Community – climate change awareness events and collaborations
8. Sustainable decision making – guided by BCorp’s Triple Bottom Line model of people, planet, profit

Commenting on the announcement, Managing Director of Jennings, Paul Mabbutt, says: “We have to do this together if we’re to make a real change. We are right beside any business wanting to reduce their impact on the planet. We believe they’ll see the benefit of doing so within their own business.” 

The roadmap is a cumulation of 40 years’ of sustainability values at Monument Park and one of the outcomes of Jennings’ target of becoming a BCorp. Paul Mabbutt adds: “The environment has been a consideration at Jennings since the design of Monument Park and its green spaces in the 1980s. Forty years on, our commitment to providing a setting for businesses and their people to work in more sustainable ways is stronger than ever.”

Monument Park in Chalgrove hosts businesses as far ranging as food production and 3D printing across managed offices and rented units, including two shepherds huts by the lake, which has been created to provide a better environment for wildlife. 

Key milestones in the Jenning roadmap:

• 2016 – Biomass boiler and LED lighting in managed buildings installed
• 2017 – PV panels fitted on all Jennings managed buildings
• 2018 – EV chargers installed
• 2021 – Carbon footprint declaration, goal setting and community objectives
• 2024 – Create Jennings Energy – renewable energy produced on site for all to use
• 2025 – Invest in making older buildings work better 
• 2026 – Target zero waste to landfill
• 2028 – Increase EV charging points

About Jennings

Jennings provides business park environments in Oxfordshire with a focus on people and planet, where the business community and people thrive. Monument Park was established in 1980 on land formerly used by the Jennings family’s farming business and carried the principle of being a values-led business with it.

Focused on doing business differently, Jennings puts people and relationships first to shape a community that nurtures and supports its tenants and office users to thrive.