The Green Building Observatory (the OID in French) launched a European programme in 2021, the European Sustainable Real Estate Initiative (ESREI). This OID sponsored programme has been bringing together real estate stakeholders to discuss ESG issues across Europe for two years now.
Thanks to the support of its 13 sponsors, the ESREI has been publishing several studies, tools, as well as a series of country fact sheets for the last two years. On Thursday 22 June 2023, the OID was delighted to celebrate the end of the first cycle of this programme dedicated to the analysis of ESG regulations at European level. This second anniversary is an opportunity to review this first cycle, and to share future ambitions!
In a context of dense regulation, ESREI has provide useful tools and studies to the market
As Sabine Brunel, Deputy Director and head of the ESREI programme at the OID, pointed out in her introduction to the conference, the OID has been running a European policy analysis programme, the European Sustainable Real Estate Initiative (ESREI), for the past two years.
The ESREI programme grew out of discussions with the association’s members, who agreed that it was currently difficult for pan-European players to compare the ESG performance (particularly energy performance) of their assets. ESREI’s role is to respond to the complexity of standards and regulations by providing a technical and regulatory watch.
The second objective has been to produce tools for property professionals, as well as cross-disciplinary studies to help them understand the European regulations that apply to buildings. One of the flagship publications is the country factsheets produced jointly with the programme’s sponsors. These factsheets provide an overview of the regulatory framework applicable to real estate in a given country, in a concise format.
Sabine Bunel – Deputy Director of OID
ESREI’s 2 latest released studies analyse the transition towards efficient building through the analysis of NZEB and EPCs in Europe
Geoffroy Gourdain, Project Manager at the OID, presented one of the programme’s emblematic studies, published in April 2023. Entitled « NZEB – The EU energy building standard », this study deciphers the requirements of the European target for energy performance in buildings, the Nearly Zero Energy Building or NZEB threshold. The ambition for new buildings is to combine excellent energy performance with the use of renewable energy. The study, which covers ten European countries, is available on our resource centre here.
Geoffroy Gourdain – Project Manager at the OID
Marie Andrieux, Project Manager at OID, shared the main lessons learned from the three studies carried out on residential and tertiary EPCs in ten European countries. These three studies highlight the pressing need to harmonise EPCs across Europe. Methodological differences limit transnational comparisons, and result in different EPCs, which is all the more problematic given that many regulations are based on those (SFDR Regulation, European Taxonomy, etc.). The third study, focusing on tertiary EPCs and more specifically office EPCs, published on 21 June 2023, is available here.
Marie Andrieux – Project Manager at OID
ESG in Europe : harmonising is now key
A discussion followed with three sponsors of the ESREI programme: Juliette Lefébure-Wirth, Deputy Head of Responsible Investment Real Estate at Axa Investment Managers, Gina Anderson, Environment and Sustainability Expert at BNP Paribas REIM and Bertrand Absolut, Sustainable Investment Europe at Ivanhoé Cambridge. Juliette Lefébure-Wirth and Gina Anderson shared their experiences of the proliferation of regulations in Europe, which raises a number of issues. Bertrand Absolut, representing a subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund), shed light on ESG practices for real estate in North America. He pointed out that on a global scale, Europe is the laboratory for ESG policies, and has an undeniable lead on sustainability issues.
The speakers agreed on the importance of and need for a common framework for comparing the ESG performance of companies and assets. For Gina Anderson, ESREI produces structuring resources that are useful to several business lines within BNP Paribas REIM. She says that ESREI’s analysis facilitates discussion and helps investors to get to grips with the issues. Juliette Lefébure-Wirth praises the pooling of analytical efforts, which is necessary given the density of regulatory news. For Bertrand Absolut, ESREI’s regulatory watch helps to foster a common understanding and interpretation of issues, which is a prerequisite for operational applications.
Speakers of the conference : from left to right Bertrand Absolut (Ivanhoé Cambridge) – Juliette Lefébure-Wirth (AXA IM) – Gina Anderson (BNP Paribas REIM) – Sabine Brunel (OID)
ESREI will continue its work to accompany real estate stakeholders transition towards sustainable building
Sabine Brunel concluded by outlining the future of the ESREI programme. The country profiles will be regularly updated and extended to cover the whole of the European Union, as well as Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Transnational analyses will be carried out. A number of subjects could be covered, such as the concept of green value, the different interpretations of the European Taxonomy, or adaptation to climate change. ESREI aims to deepen and develop new partnerships with European organisations working on real estate and ESG, in order to create a network. In the long term, the ambition is to set up an office in Brussels, so as to be able to influence the European legislative debate.
At the end of its first cycle, we are proud of what has been achieved so far thanks to the support of our sponsors. We strongly think that upcoming regulations will make this programme even more essential. The initiative is open to new sponsors for its second phase: join us to help us go further and faster!
The ESREI programme is sponsored by Advenis REIM, AEW, Amundi Asset Management, BNP Paribas Real Estate, CBRE, Icade, Ivanhoé Cambridge, La Française REM, Mazars, Ofi Invest Real Estate, PERIAL Asset Management and PIMCO Prime Real Estate.
