Dear reader,

Did you, by any chance, make it to the recent ESG conference? There is a good chance that you did, because the overwhelming response made it virtually unthinkable to convene any other major event at the same time.

Apart from the attendance of the conference, we hardly needed environmental activists gluing themselves to asphalt in the streets of our city to remind us of the arduous tasks ahead: It is nothing short of a game changer for our entire industry.

“ESG is here to stay!”

And indeed, I took home a lot of important information and impulses, while in turn getting the chance to contribute some of my own. Here are my three takeaways:

1. ESG is here to stay: We are undergoing a change process. And no: We are not going to be done with it at some point, because it is permanent, and there will always be things to take care of yet.
2. Lawmakers are busy backing the efforts with corresponding regulations, further tightening the already ambitious objectives.
3. We may as well kiss the 1.5°C target good bye: It is no longer in reach, and even the mark of 3°C is probably an average level that we will exceed by far, and most notably so in the cities.

This makes it indispensable to align each and every real estate portfolio with climate protection targets while taking new perspectives into account. Integrating biodiversity into new-build developments (uh-oh, those will soon be a thing of the past) and into revitalisations is just one of the relevant issues in this context.

Speaking of which: When it comes to biodiversity, I would like to pitch in. Did you know that moors are not only the most efficient carbon sink of all, but the habitat par excellence for an unbelievable number of different (and often threatened) species? If you had no idea, you do know now. Why not put that knowledge to work?