Calthorpe Estates needed to understand and reduce where possible its impact on the environment.
Savills acts as agents for a large part of Calthorpe’s 1,600ac Edgebaston urban portfolio and the 8,000 acre rural Muckrach Estate near Grantown-on-Spey. With a combined knowledge of Calthorpe’s assets and their operation, Savills was able to respond to the need for an assessment of the portfolio’s emissions and to develop a strategy to reduce those over time.
We compiled a proposal to asses direct emissions from the Edgbaston portfolio. As managers of their Scottish rural assets for the Group, Savills was able to advise on the inclusion of Calthorpe’s three rural landholdings in the emissions assessment and strategy. Rural assets, though often net emitters themselves, have inherent potential to sequester carbon and contribute to the positive environmental credentials of an organisation.
In terms of results, it is important that Muckrach Estate is managed as a progressive, environmentally responsible corporate citizen as scrutiny of rural landowners’ contribution to society increases. This combined with an acknowledgment that the urban portfolio will have residual, unavoidable emissions, the Savills team is developing a landscape-scale land use change and habitat creation scheme on what had been a grouse moor at Muckrach Estate. The scheme will focus on encouraging natural regeneration, new native woodland creation and peatland restoration. Key drivers for the scheme were carbon income through registration of the scheme under the Woodland Carbon Code and biodiversity enhancement.
The scheme is likely to sequester circa 400,000tCO2 over the next 75 years.