As part of a new climate strategy, one of the leading German asset managers is also targeting net-zero emission portfolio by 2050 – German investment manager KGAL has committed to becoming a climate-neutral company by the beginning of 2021 by offsetting all greenhouse gas emissions connected to its operations. Emissions calculated per employee will be reduced by 5% annually during the next 10 years. It has also pledged to have a net-zero emission investment portfolio by 2050. The targets are set out in the company’s newly announced climate strategy.

CA Immo successfully placed a €350 million fixed rate senior unsecured green bond with a 5-year maturity and an annual coupon of 1.0%. The issuance was oversubscribed more than 5.4 times at final terms with strong demand by more than 150 investors.

Even though logistics is the real estate sector least affected by the current economic downturn, tenants are still looking to cut costs and this is what landlords need to respond to. Ana Dumitrache, Country Head at CTP Romania, who will be a speaker at our upcoming SEE Property Forum 2020 in Bucharest, talked to us about how COVID-19 has impacted the company’s operations, what tenants are looking for and how an ambitious expansion strategy can be executed.

CTP successfully issued a debut green bond for €650 million on 1 October 2020. CTP’s inaugural green bonds became the largest debut issuance by a CEE real estate company.  The bonds received a strong reception from investors and were several times oversubscribed with a peak order book in excess of €2 billion.

JLL announced the next stage in its ambitious sustainability program by committing to achieve net zero carbon emissions across all JLL-occupied buildings by 2030. The firm also advocates a net zero approach for all its clients and suppliers.

CTP Group recorded a profit of €99 million (more than CZK 2.5 billion) in the first half of 2020, while its Portfolio of Class A property under management grew to over 5.8 million sqm. During the first six months of the year, CTP Group added 268,926 sqm of lettable area to its portfolio, and plans to grow by additional 595,000 sqm by year-end. The pandemic has transformed the nature of demand, but rental incomes increased in the second quarter.

The SES-operated shopping centre Weberzeile located in Ried, Upper Austria, now generates its own environmentally friendly solar power, which is also the case at SES shopping centre Murpark in Graz. Last week, SES Spar European Shopping Centers commenced operation of a 520-kWp photovoltaic rooftop installation, which produces approximately 500,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity per year for its own use and reduces CO2 emissions by 128 tons. The photovoltaic system installed atop Weberzeile is the largest to be mounted by SES to date and is the benchmark for the installation of solar power systems on the roofs of other SES shopping centres throughout Austria.

Warburg-HIH Invest Real Estate is improving the carbon footprint of its portfolio within the scope of its ESG strategy. The real estate portfolio is gradually being converted to an environmentally-friendly supply of electricity from ecological sources and heat from carbon-neutral natural gas. In joint undertaking with the Hamburg-based energy provider Lichtblick, a total of 126 properties are currently being converted to the use of green electricity. This will allow for a reduction of carbon emissions in the portfolio by around 7,500 tonnes annually. Warburg-HIH Invest will also be gradually converting its entire European real estate portfolio to green electricity.

Over 80% of industrial occupiers are asking about sustainable warehouse solutions and 60% of them would like their facilities to be green-certified, reveals Cushman & Wakefield in its Industrial Goes Green report on sustainability in the industrial sector.

The Vox Technology Park office building in Timișoara has obtained the BREEAM In-Use v6 sustainable certification with an Outstanding rating, the highest existent score accorded on a global level, thus being the first project in Romania with this ranking.