HSBC Tower, 8 Canada Square, London

Statistics

• Constructed 1999-2002
• Height 200m (656ft)
• 45 floors
• 102,190sqm (1,100,000sqft)
• Architect Foster & Partners

Sir Norman Foster designed HSBC's previous global headquarters at 1 Queen's Street, Hong Kong, therefore it was only right that he was chosen to design a building that would pull together all of HSBC's scattered sites around the City of London to create an iconic global headquarters in London's Docklands. HSBC's environmental principles fitted in with Foster & Partners experience and passion for designing buildings that champion energy efficient systems; the building features recyclable furniture and equipment.

HSBC became carbon neutral in 2005 and in 2008 the skyscraper became the tallest building in Europe to feature solar panels and the largest installation of photovoltaic panels on a corporate office in London, which are fixed to withstand wind speeds of up to 140mph. The panels will generate about 1,550,000 kilowatt hours of green energy over the buildings lease which is enough to power 20 average size UK homes every year. Simon Martin, Head of Group Corporate Sustainability, said about the installation,"This installation shows innovation and demonstrates that renewable technologies of this scale can be delivered successfully. If every headquarter building around the world invested in solar panels, it would significantly increase the transition towards a low carbon economy and we hope to become a catalyst for this."

The tower has also been good to the balance sheet for HSBC. In April 2007 it became the first building in the UK to be sold for more than £1bn when it was sold to Metrovacesa before taking ownership in December 2008 and posting a £250m gain from the agreement. In December 2009 it was then sold to South Korea's National Pension Service for £772m. The bank will be paying rent of £46m a year for the next 17 years having freed up capital.