Prologis is extending its UK partnerships with climate change charity ‘Cool Earth’ and sustainability certification company ‘The Planet Mark’ to its European operations, as part of an initiative to reduce and mitigate whole-life carbon emissions in all its new logistics buildings. Under the programme, Prologis will work with Cool Earth to fund the protection of rainforests to mitigate unavoidable embodied carbon emissions in its new developments across Europe and, in this way, help protect an area of rainforest 31 times larger than the size of each building.

7R, a Polish warehouse developer, is implementing new technology to manage the risks connected with flat roofs. The "Smart Roof" platform, developed by Sense Monitoring, helps to prevent roof overload by alerting the building's manager in advance of potential danger. 7R will apply the system in the 7R Park Gdańsk II logistics complex in Kowale, where a monitored roof will cover over 60,000 sqm of modern warehouse space.

Arcadis published the annual results of the international construction costs comparison (International Construction Costs 2020). Arcadis ICC Index 2020 monitors 100 cities around the world, assessing their construction costs and market conditions. This year's study also includes an insight into the construction industry in view of the current coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate change. According to the ICC Index 2020, Prague has higher construction costs in the CEE region than Warsaw (Poland), Belgrade (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania) and Sofia (Bulgaria), but lower than Zagreb (Croatia).  

Climate change has become a reality and real estate is one of the key economic sectors in this. Buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in the EU. So far, the industry has concentrated its effort, although still much limited, on the construction and management of buildings, which could be quantifiable in the green-certified prime office stock. It is therefore critical that the real industry plays its part in reversing the negative trend for the climate and the environment, reveals a new report produced by a team of analysts of EMEA Research & Insight at, Cushman & Wakefield.

Sustainability is top of the agenda this year at Davos as governments and businesses around the world are grappling with ways to combat climate change. Of the four global issues the World Economic Forum has said “clearly stand out as urgent and important” at the annual meeting in Switzerland, the first two are how to address environmental challenges harming our ecology and economy, and figuring out how to transform industries to achieve more sustainable business models. The built environment has a huge role to play in developing and implementing solutions, with technology, investment and robust governance central to success, according to the City Momentum Index report from JLL.

Prominent investors, developers, advisors and other professionals discussed how technology and climate change are rewriting the rules of the real estate game at the RICS’s latest global summit. Here are our key takeaways from the RICS World Built Environment Forum, organized in New York this May.

According to the RICS Global Commercial Property Monitor (GCPM), 38% of respondents reported that climate risks are not important or irrelevant for investors. In addition, according to the Global Construction Survey (GCM), over a third, (36%) of respondents believe that though compared to two years ago, investor focus has shifted towards building designs that are energy efficient and carbon neutral, it is only limited to a few niche investors.

Prologis has committed to a science-based target (SBT) to address the urgent action needed to curb climate change. Led by the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), SBTs are an internationally recognized approach for helping companies create science-based goals for reducing GHG emissions.