Biodiversity

As part of our commitment to Environmental, Social and Governance matters, we continue to look at ways in which our assets and actions can work in harmony with the communities and environment around us. Several biodiversity initiatives across our portfolio assets are reported in this year’s Sustainability Report 2022-23 https://lnkd.in/eFPu4Pha
 
One such project, was run through an innovative campaign for HS1 Ltd.
At St Pancras International station, funds were raised to restore damaged peatlands in the Scottish Borders and raise awareness about the importance of this vital ecosystem.

UK peatlands store around 3 times more carbon than our forests do, and damaged peatlands emit a huge amount of CO2 into the atmosphere.

As part of the campaign, every sale contributed to:

• Preventing an estimated 3.33 million kg CO2e from entering the atmosphere through peatland restoration
• Revitalising a unique ecosystem, supporting a greater diversity of wildlife including iconic species like black grouse and hen harriers
• Increasing the area’s capacity to store clean water and decreased the risk of wildfire

As the Green Gateway to Europe providing low-carbon transport, High Speed 1’s vision is to be the world’s leading high-speed rail experience, providing the most sustainable option for transport across the UK and Europe. Train travel is 80-90% more carbon friendly than air travel. HS1 goes further working with its partners to reduce its impacts on climate change through its power procurement and consumption, waste handling, habitat protection along the line.

We’re really proud of this initiative and together with InfraRed Capital Partners Ltd, this project underpins how our shared values can align to our respective long-term investors, enabling us to support this and many other creative and beneficial initiatives in HS1 and support its recovery post COVID.

At Equitix we understand the important role we must play in addressing the climate emergency and will continue working to achieve this goal across an increasing range of initiatives.