The £3 Million Saving: Asset Manager’s Guide to Pragmatic ESG

The asset management industry faces a multi-million-pound question:

How do you decarbonise an ageing office building without killing your investment?

With the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEES) cliff-edge fast approaching, a poor EPC rating is no longer just a letter; it's a significant future (and present) liability.

The conventional wisdom, often delivered as standard consultant advice, presents a daunting answer: decant your tenants, rip out the old systems, and spend millions on a top-of-the-line replacement.

But for Les Lang, Partner of Till Asset Management, a tactful asset manager who started his career as a housing officer in Moss Side and has built a reputation on tackling "unloved" projects, he argues the “rip out of the old systems” narrative is not just flawed; it’s a failure of imagination.

Les Lang - Partner, Till Asset Management

At the 435,000 sq ft Exchange Quay campus in Manchester, he faced this exact dilemma with a building rated EPC D.

The proposed solution? A £3 million-plus bill for a new VRF system, plus the associated costs and disruption of moving every tenant out.

For Lang, this approach was a non-starter.

"The solution to sorting these things out cannot be that you have to kill your investment money," he states. "It just can't be."

This refusal to accept the status quo led to a masterclass in what could be called "Pragmatic ESG " – an approach that prioritises intelligent, cost-effective solutions over the industry's apparent obsession with high expenditure.

The Contrarian Solution: Challenging the Advisors

Instead of accepting the initial advice, Lang and his team went back to first principles.

"I'm just going to keep asking questions until I get an answer which is palatable," he explains.

The crucial question was simple: what if we change the fuel system but keep the old, perfectly functional four-fan coil systems?

The answer was a game-changer.

By leaving the internal systems untouched and focusing solely on replacing the gas boilers on the roof with a modern air source heat pump, they engineered a radically different outcome.

Exchange Quay Logo

The results were staggering:

• The Cost: The entire project was delivered for just £650,000, a saving of millions compared to the initial proposal.

• The EPC Rating: The building was upgraded from an EPC D to a B, making it compliant and future-proofed.

• The Disruption: Not a single tenant was disturbed. The entire changeover was completed in just three days over a single weekend.

"We proved that it works," Lang says.

"We've had a year of it, heating up the building, no problems. That takes a bit of the pressure off when we have to do the other buildings because we know we've got a solution."

A Critique of the Industry's "Expenditure Myth"

This success story, however, revealed a frustrating quirk in the property industry: a narrative that often seems to value high spending as a metric of success in itself.

When Lang’s team tried to share their cost-effective solution with the media, the first question asked was, "How much money have you spent?"

"If you spend seven million, they'll definitely run it," Lang says with a note of exasperation. "The point is, I've sorted all this out for £650,000. That's a better story than spending three million."

This "expenditure myth," he argues, is a problem that feeds into a wider industry culture of "tick boxes."

"Any idiot can fizz a load of money," he states candidly. "You'd think that people would be more interested in the money savings."

Exchange Quay, Salford

This pragmatic philosophy extends beyond ESG.

When Till Asset Management refurbishes a floor plate, they do so for around £25 per square foot, a fraction of the £65-plus that is often quoted for a standard Cat A fit-out. The method is the same, start with what can be intelligently reused, rather than what can be ripped out.

Lang’s approach at Exchange Quay isn't just a case study in cost-saving; it's a fundamental challenge to the industry's entire mindset on ESG.

It forces every asset manager to ask: are we genuinely seeking sustainable outcomes, or are we just buying the most expensive solution to tick a box?

The Pragmatic ESG Play: Three Key Takeaways

1. Question the Conventional Wisdom: Don't accept that the most expensive, consultant-approved solution is the only option. The real value is created by having the courage to challenge the advice you're given.

2. Focus on the Fuel, Not Just the System: The biggest and most cost-effective impact often comes from changing the energy source, not ripping everything out.

3. Prioritise Non-Disruptive Solutions: The best ESG strategies protect both your carbon footprint and your invaluable tenant relationships.