This spring, the Mastère Immobilier et Bâtiment Durable from École nationale des ponts et chaussées (ENPC) organized once again its major international conference dedicated to the ecological transition of the real estate and building sector. From 7 to 11 April 2025, more than 30 experts shared their views and explored solutions for the future of real estate.
In a general agenda about “Net Zero Carbon Strategy, in Real Estate and Building Sector, in the World by 2050”, the Observatoire de l’immobilier durable (OID) was pleased to be a partner of the first day of the conference on April 7th, a day dedicated to the following topic: « Sustainable real estate around the world: what are the prospects for the future? ». As part of this first day, Sandrine Lafon-Ceyral, Chief Responsible Officer at Amundi Real Assets and Geoffroy Gourdain, project manager at OID, shared their expertise on several major challenges. Let’s take a closer look at their discussion!
The regulatory context in Europe is setting the pace
Over the last 5 to 10 years, the metronome of the environmental and social transition of the real estate sector in Europe has mainly been regulation. In particular, European regulations provide frameworks that apply at the level of a building, an entity or an organisation. But these regulatory developments have also been accompanied by voluntary and normative frameworks. Now, the latest news and trends in Europe and the rest of the world point to a disengagement from ESG issues, which could raise questions about the future of the ecological transition.
From left to right: Sandrine Lafon-Ceyral, Geoffroy Gourdain and Bruno Mesureur
Recent changes leading to two-speed market dynamics for real estate
Recent developments, and especially in regard to the Omnibus in the EU, could create a split between organisations. On one part, some actors who already made efforts on ESG topics, with processes and strategies in place. On another part, other organisations which do not place ESG issues in priority because of the current political changes. The latter could fall behind schedule, which will be difficult and/or costly to catch up.
Especially, the importance of defining and keeping strong environmental ambitions for the companies in the real estate sector is not only part of their image, but also essential to preserve economic advantages in a market undergoing profound changes. Indeed, companies who are already focused on ESG in their strategies could stay ahead and even gain market shares. For example, some investors are focusing more on Europeans investments. This could be an important opportunity for companies which have this comparative advantage in ESG, as investors seem to maintain their social and environmental positions.
This economic change could also impact the business. Indeed, attractiveness for hiring new talents could be affected in the case of companies that do not display values or commitments on ESG issues.
Data and training: two key ESG issues in sustaintable real estate
The intervention from Sandrine and Geoffroy was also the time to highlight the current challenges to access environmental data and to train and raise awareness among all staff in real estate companies. Indeed, these two aspects are essential to build a solid ESG strategy.
Even though companies have different levels of maturity about ESG integration into their strategies, there is no universal criteria to define what type of actors are ahead of the curve. Integrating ESG into corporate strategies is still mainly a question of anticipation and intention. However, in view of the effort required, the size of the organisation can be a determining factor. HR volume to deal with issues such as CSRD could represent a major part of the teams involved. For example, Sandrine Lafon-Ceyral mentioned that 6 people are working on the topic for around 400 assets.
Another pain point in ESG matters is the difficulty of having relevant tools and good quality and efficient data. Indeed, refining the data is often necessary and is not always profitable. Even though this access to data is not an objective in itself, it is an essential starting point of ESG strategies.
From left to right: Sandrine Lafon-Ceyral, Geoffroy Gourdain and Bruno Mesureur
Finally, training and raising awareness among the teams (or even clients and investors) is a major challenge. ESG must be a common goal and issue at every level of an organisation. Indeed, investment teams must have an initial filter to judge assets, technical teams need to have a vision of what the buildings of tomorrow will be, management teams need to be trained, etc. Sandrine Lafon-Ceyral mentioned that all teams are trained at Amundi, with the aim of getting all sectors to communicate with each other (having common minimum standards and specific requirements for all professions). For example, the Sustainable Real Estate Workshop (Fresque de l’Immobilier Durable) from OID is used to raise awareness among the staff.
The conclusion is obvious: the two matters go hand in hand, as it is very complicated to obtain reliable and quality data if the people responsible for reporting it are not trained in the subject.
This also applies to end users and customers, who must be onboard to tackle the transition goals. Large companies must report on their extra-financial performance, so they will be asking for this, but smaller tenants don’t have these priorities. As far as Amundi is concerned, the asset managers try to be as close as possible (at least 1 meeting/year) and try to raise tenant’s awareness (with OID resources, good practices guide, etc).
Is 2050 the real horizon for Europe?
Finally, all these considerations must be placed in the context of the European objectives for 2030 and 2050, emphasising the structuring environmental issues that accompany them. As the general topic of the International Conference from ENPC stands along the 2050 horizon from the European Union, it was important to understand how the sector is taking this timeline into account. The European Union set the goal for carbon neutrality in 2050, and all economic sectors are concerned. The conference on 7th April was an occasion to investigate this deadline, which in the end is rather distant compared to the realities of the sector.
Indeed, major milestones are still ahead in the meantime, like the Decret tertiaire in 2030 and 2040 in France. At the level of the company, 2030 is an easy target to appreciate and consider. But when organisations are looking a bit further in time, like 2040, the problem is not the same. Between 2025 and 2040, a company could face 2 to 3 changes in tenants, leading to changes in usage of the building. When looking at energy performance, for example, these changes in use lead to very different levels of consumption. This variable makes it difficult to project how the building will work and perform in the future.
But the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 is beginning to be asked by some players. Indeed, on the investor side, a demand is emerging for an understanding of how the building will approach recognised trajectories (such the CRREM method trajectories).
Whatever the case, Europe included the subject of ESG some time ago and is still one step ahead, which makes grounds for optimism regarding the environmental transition. The real estate sector needs to get its act together to address the issue, especially given its impact on the environment and the social challenges associated.
The ESREI programme is sponsored by Amundi Asset Management, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Clariane, Ivanhoe Cambridge, La Française REM, Ofi Invest, Pimco Prime Real Estate and Praemia REIM.
