Allianz Real Estate, Catella, Hines, Redevco and Schroders Capital have backed the Urban Land Institute’s plans for an industry-wide roadmap to net zero.
The institute said the project, Fast-track to Decarbonisation: an integrated roadmap for the built environment, will help the industry across Europe to accelerate and scale up the decarbonisation process.
ULI said it would analyse and consolidate the real estate industry’s approach to net zero, assessing progress and the impact of industry frameworks, as well as identifying urgent gaps and barriers that need to be bridged.
It hopes to create an agreed-upon roadmap to accelerate progress and present an “effective and efficient united front” to support decarbonisation.
“A lot is already happening in the industry,” said ULI Europe CEO Lisette van Doorn. “Many investors and managers have already announced net zero carbon targets. However, many experience significant challenges when trying to implement these pledges.”
Lack of alignment
Van Doorne said legacy regulation and insurance issues were holding up innovations, while current real estate valuation approaches failed to appropriately address the risks of climate change, making it harder to make the business case for necessary investment. On top of this there is a “lack of knowledge and expertise across the value chain and alignment issues between tenants and landlords”.
She added that this proved that the industry “must collaborate and collectively work through the issues in order to scale up new innovations and speed up the process”.
The list of names already backing the project shows that many are keen to collaborate.
Xavier Jongen, managing director at Catella, said: “We think the industry should take a stronger leadership role, to proactively propose scalable solutions and engage with governments and stakeholders to decarbonise in the cleverest way we can.
“We should not take a backseat, wait-and-see, and then later complain about how possible future climate-related regulations, that might be enforced on us, affect our industry. This is a topic for collaboration.”
Sharing best practice
ULI’s Fast-track to Decarbonisation will provide an overview of how owners, investors and financers, developers, occupiers and users, valuers, the construction industry and consultants can assist each other to achieve net zero. It will also share good and emerging practice on how data science, technology and innovation can help speed up the process and build the business case for net zero.
It will also analyse the hurdles in the transition to net zero, such as in energy supply, transport and insurance, and provide solutions for how to overcome these.
“As a business that developed its framework to net zero relatively early, we understand the importance of finding a way through this challenge as a group,” said Raphael Mertens, chief risk officer at Allianz Real Estate. As part of the steering group, Allianz will ensure that the project’s findings provide measurable solutions and insights which are shared “in a way that encourages others to face the challenges of the built environment’s path to net zero”.
Hines’ global head of ESG, Peter Epping, said the project was “critical”, adding: “We encourage everyone in the real estate sector to join forces to achieve this momentous goal.”
The sentiment was echoed by Andrew Vaughan, CEO of Redevco. “If ever there was a moment when the industry has to come together and work in collaboration it is now,” he said. “The climate crisis is an existential threat to all our lives and livelihoods, and it can only be tackled together, so we are delighted to be partnering with ULI and the other leading real estate players.”
Sophie van Oosterom, global head of real estate at Schroders Capital, added: “To be truly successful in our ambitions, we believe it is crucial for the whole real estate industry to align carbon objectives to actual outcomes, reducing emissions, rather than to hide behind outperforming theoretical benchmarks.”
She added that collaboration was the key, if the industry wanted to “move beyond statements”.
How the project will work
The research element of the project will include a review of existing literature and industry guidance from other organisations, a survey of ULI’s 45,000 members, and interviews with decarbonisation experts from the real estate and other industry sectors, as well as academics, real estate practitioners and other industry organisations.
The year-long project will also include an engagement and education programme including workshops, roundtables and webinars.
The roadmap will be officially launched at a dedicated hybrid summit in summer 2022 and will be followed by at least two Advisory Services panels. The five-day panels will focus on specific cities to help each city fast-track and scale up the decarbonisation challenge of the built environment.
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