Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust (SLIPIT) has acquired land 1,447 hectares of upland rough grazing and open moorland in the Cairngorm National Park for £7.5m.
The site supports 956 hectares for planting with natural broadleaf trees - about 1.5 million in total - with approximately 115 hectares for peatland restoration, and the remainder open land to support bio diverse habitats.
The site is expected to sequester approximately 195,630 tonnes of carbon up until 2060, representing 73% of the trust’s residual embedded and operational carbon.
As part of SLIPIT's wider Environmental, Societal and Governance (ESG) strategy, it is not investing in commercial forestry, but is acquiring a carbon offset at a fixed price.
The purchase forms part of a wider strategy to achieve carbon net zero, based primarily on reducing operational carbon at the investment property assets with offsets for residual carbon that cannot be eliminated.
It is anticipated that the costs of planting will be met through grant funding.
Jason Baggaley, fund manager of SLIPIT, commented: “We believe that being an early mover will give the Company an important advantage in future costs for offsetting as society moves to net zero by 2050.
“We anticipate making a couple of further acquisitions, on a smaller scale, to complete this element of the carbon strategy.
“Although the focus is on carbon offsetting the opportunities for wider ecological and net bio diversity gain are also being explored, which is important given changing legislation around development in the UK.”
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