CBRE Netherlands is working to reduce CO2 emissions from commercial real estate by 25% before 2030
CBRE Netherlands is aiming to make a significant contribution to the objectives of the Dutch climate agreement together with its customers, partners and other parties in the real estate sector. The ambition is to reduce 25% of the CO2 emissions from commercial real estate in the national climate agreement by 2030.
The real estate sector is one of the largest contributors to CO2 emissions (39%*), and therefore has a major role to play in the transition to a more sustainable society. CBRE Netherlands is the market leader in commercial real estate advice and therefore has an opportunity to put sustainability onto the agenda of real estate projects through its day-to-day activities. The organisation has launched ‘The Real Impact Project’ along with partners and customers. Users, owners and developers of commercial real estate objects can play a role in this.
We have the perfect opportunity to really make an impact through our day-to-day activities. People often assume that making real estate more sustainable is complex and difficult to achieve, but we know that often this does not have to be the case. We ask people, organisations and companies to act on their ambitions in this area. Because now is the time for real action.
The first phase
Initially, the project will consist of two components:
- With immediate effect, sustainability advice will be made a standard part of all CBRE services. Not an optional extra, but a basic component. The advice will be given without obligations, and the organisation will invest 100 staff hours per week.
- CBRE will monitor the energy consumption and reduction in CO2 emissions of all participating properties. Using a digital platform, participants can easily see the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of their buildings or portfolio. The platform will also include performance and trends in these emissions compared with benchmark figures, future regulations and anonymised comparable objects. This will allow them to plan improvements.
An important step
The Real Impact Project is fully consistent with the path that CBRE Netherlands has chosen to take itself, as an organization. For example, it always opts for sustainable buildings and a progressive mobility policy has also been rolled out internally. In addition, there is a growing sustainability team which provides both internal and external advice and supervises projects. Although its goals are ambitious, the team believes that they are perfectly achievable provided that enough partners, clients and other market players participate.
This ambition hasn’t come out of nowhere. Our sustainability team has picked up many signals from the market that people are ready to take sustainability and CO2 reduction seriously. But often, they need clear goals and a clear strategy to get them moving in the right direction in a practical way. And that is where CBRE can make the difference: we want to provide that practical guidance for the sector, by setting specific and achievable goals.
The target in figures
The total reduction in CO2 emissions for the built environment is specified as 9,300 ktons of CO2 in the Dutch climate agreement (measured on the basis of the most recent estimate for 2017 until 2030). When private homes and the public sector are excluded, CO2 reduction for commercial real estate for this period amounts to approximately 4,000 ktons of CO2. CBRE will be aiming to achieve 25% of this reduction, or approximately 1,000 ktons of CO2.
*Source: CBS (Statistics Netherlands)
