New research by Deepki, the ESG data intelligence firm, which surveyed 250 European pension fund managers* in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, with a combined AUM of €402 billion, shows that across different segments of the real estate sector, industrial properties such as warehouses and manufacturing sites lead the way when it comes to ESG performance.
The report asked respondents to rate the performance of eight commercial property sectors. Two thirds (62%) rated the ESG performance of the industrial sector as good or very good, followed by leisure (61%), and retail (60%). This compares to logistics and office real estate which had the lowest ‘positive’ rating of 47% and 44% respectively. The full analysis is included in the table below:
| Sector | Very poor | Poor | Average | Good | Very good | Total ‘positive’ |
| Industrial | 9% | 10% | 19% | 24% | 38% | 62% |
| Leisure | 3% | 10% | 26% | 33% | 28% | 61% |
| Retail | 11% | 10% | 19% | 37% | 23% | 60% |
| Care homes | 8% | 14% | 25% | 33% | 20% | 53% |
| Social housing | 7% | 10% | 30% | 36% | 17% | 53% |
| Hotels | 6% | 11% | 31% | 34% | 18% | 52% |
| Logistics | 8% | 15% | 30% | 26% | 21% | 47% |
| Office | 1% | 17% | 38% | 29% | 15% | 44% |
Commenting on the research findings, Vincent Bryant, CEO and Co-founder of Deepki, said:
“Pension funds are becoming highly active when it comes to improving the ESG performance of their assets, and commercial real estate is no exception. Sectors such as industrial and leisure are already performing well, albeit with room for improvement. Deepki is seeing significant demand from institutional investors keen to get an accurate picture of the ESG performance of their assets and ensure they are on a path to net zero.”
Founded in 2014, Deepki’s SaaS platform helps real estate investors, owners and managers improve the ESG performance of their real estate assets, and in the process enhance their value. The real estate sector is currently responsible for around 40% of the Earth’s carbon emissions, and has a clear target of reaching net zero by 2050 – a goal set by the World Green Building Council Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.
More than $5 trillion of investment[1] is needed each year to decarbonise the built environment and ensure the real estate sector can meet its commitment to meet the net zero target by 2050. Deepki estimates that the value of the monitoring and analytics market required to achieve this goal will be worth $5 to $10 billion by 2025, with year-on-year growth of 20%.
The SaaS platform enables clients to collect ESG data, get a comprehensive overview of their portfolio’s ESG performance, establish investment plans to reach Net Zero, and assess results. It also allows users to report to key stakeholders. The platform is supported by carbon and ESG experts who partner with clients across data collection and analysis, through to ESG strategy definition and implementation.
Now with over 150 employees, offices in five European capitals and operating in over 38 countries, Deepki has become the global leader in ESG and data intelligence solutions for environmental transition in the commercial real estate sector, with more than 500 million m² – almost five times the area of Paris – under management. To date, Deepki has saved over 180,000 equivalent tonnes of CO₂ across its client base.
For further information about Deepki’s end-to-end solutions, visit: www.deepki.com
[1] Vivid Economics
