Cadogan

What did the client need?

Cadogan’s initial request was for support to manage their ESG data collection, data validation and analysis in 2022, following the creation of the Cadogan Chelsea 2030 Stewardship Strategy in 2020. Verco put together a scope of work, which included providing quarterly and annual reports for a range of internal and external stakeholders, along with their SECR and REEB submissions. This helped Cadogan understand which areas of their portfolio needed the most attention to achieve the Chelsea 2030 targets and lay the foundations for tracking the impacts that Cadogan’s actions have had.

Following initial mobilisation of the ESG platform and the data reporting programme through 2022 (which primarily focused on Cadogan’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions), Cadogan required more in-depth investigation of their wider Scope 3 emissions. Verco supported Cadogan in targeting their areas of missing data across all emission scopes. Since 2022, Cadogan has been on a consistent trajectory of improving their data quality and capture across all Scope 3 categories, with a particular focus on tenant data emissions, which has helped to inform an occupier engagement strategy and informed further decisions on how to reach their Chelsea 2030 targets. Verco has supported Cadogan in identifying and selecting new technologies to achieve these goals, ranging from data collection services to scope 3 specific platforms and wider ESG management platforms.

The reporting programme has continued to evolve alongside Cadogan’s developing needs for operational reporting over the last few years. It has moved beyond general data management and data quality improvements (while still performing those actions) into support with internal communications and strategy. Now, it maximises the usability of the data in the reporting programme, advising on reporting strategy and ensuring systems and methodologies are assurance-ready.

Improvements in data quality and capture across emission scopes led to Cadogan’s requirements for semi-regular updates of their Chelsea 2030 net zero progress. These were performed by the Verco Aim for Zero team, who also helped with ESOS work and wider net zero strategy support, including offsetting strategies.

Following the successful implementation of the reporting programme, Cadogan requested guidance on how their reporting strategy would need to evolve, given compliance and regulatory requirements. A key point of interest was how to reconcile reporting alignment with changing best practice recommendations (e.g. SBTi), which included re-baselining, further development of their net zero pathway, and advice on their maturing long-term strategy, which the Verco Aim for Zero team has been supporting.

How did Verco support the client?

In 2022, the first year of the programme, the Verco team mobilised all relevant environmental data from Cadogan’s portfolios onto the reporting platform, Envizi, where it can all be viewed together or split out from asset to unit level. This vastly reduced the effort and time spent on gathering data from multiple sources and comparing or combining it manually. The systems and calculations are now set out in a methodology which is routinely updated to remain aligned to carbon accounting best practice and help speed up the process of getting data assured.

Alongside mobilisation of the platform, Verco created reports unique to property managers and the internal sustainability team. These identified which assets needed further investigation or more information and provided insight into which assets were performing poorly relative to their peers. This process included quarterly analysis of the whole portfolio to find which assets had significant data variances, missing data or consumption that didn’t agree with occupancy and degree day trends.

From 2023 onwards, Verco has responded to Cadogan’s need to increase the focus on achieving their 2030 targets. Property managers now receive bespoke data packs to assess their asset performance and to ask questions of the buildings that could inform future interventions. The core sustainability team receives reports at a portfolio level that inform their communications internally as well as offering insight into the effectiveness of their carbon reduction actions at the asset level.

For the complex, mixed-use Duke of York Square site, the Cadogan team found that Envizi could not visualise or represent the site as needed, so the Verco team created bespoke dashboards to view data through their multiple levels of sub-metering and by specific occupier/unit. They worked alongside Cadogan’s asset managers and on-site teams to make sure all required data was collected and analysed.

Following receipt of Cadogan’s initial data in late 2021, Verco advised Cadogan on how to re-state the preceding years of annually reported data using more thorough and reputable methods. This would help them estimate the missing data across Cadogan’s occupied units. As occupier emissions make up approximately 60% of Cadogan’s overall emissions, Verco helped Cadogan improve the actual data they had for occupied spaces by advising on the best available technologies to collect, visualise and report on those specific areas. They also set out a longer-term pathway to improve data quality. This included a further change in technology use in 2024 and further development afterwards, moving from 3% actual occupier data reported in the original 2019 baseline to 95% actual data in the 2025 report.

After Verco re-stated Cadogan’s previous year emissions, the Aim for Zero team was selected by Cadogan to support with net zero pathway updates, reviewing the reporting boundaries required for the business and providing best practice analysis of Cadogan’s offsetting strategy. They helped ensure their overall strategy was justified. Throughout the reporting programme, Cadogan has been able to use the data reliably for other net zero or regulatory requirements and Verco has supported Cadogan through ESOS audits and ESOS submissions.

Verco continues to support Cadogan as their net zero story progresses, currently undertaking:

• · A re-baselining process in line with SBTi guidance
• · Assessing the savings that are possible from Cadogan identified actions
• · Mobilising a new data collection platform
• · Supporting an RfP process for a new ESG platform
• · Beginning measurement and verification for key carbon reduction actions

The initial set up of both Envizi and the reporting programme has evolved each year, taking on requirements from both external reporting factors and internal stakeholder questions regarding how to maximise the value that Cadogan’s data can provide to decision making and business planning, from asset managers to the board of directors. Verco has greatly enjoyed the challenges presented by Cadogan. It has been a pleasure to work with a company that is so dedicated to reducing its impacts.

What was the result?

Verco created a reporting programme that worked for Cadogan’s particular needs, and now provides them with an ongoing, wholesale reporting service. Regular presentation and analysis of the data allows Cadogan's asset managers to view the impacts of their management decisions, improve savings, and develop the operational sustainability of their portfolios. Results of the analysis are also included in quarterly board reports to support Cadogan’s governance processes and long-term strategy tracking.

The consistent data completeness and quality improvements have allowed Cadogan to forge ahead with confidence in new target setting, re-baselining and furthering their understanding of what is possible and achievable in their net zero journey.