Real Estate Decarbonisation: Why the Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story

Reflections from EVORA’s London Climate Action Week roundtable

During London Climate Action Week, EVORA convened a roundtable of real estate investors, asset managers and sustainability leaders to discuss a question that’s been quietly bothering the industry: how much of the carbon reduction being reported is genuine delivery, and how much is grid decarbonisation and portfolio churn doing the work for us?

The conversation, held under Chatham House Rule, surfaced ten clear themes. A few stood out.

Reporting frameworks need to evolve

GRESB participation is becoming conditional on investor mandate rather than universal best practice, and its one-size-fits-all approach — particularly around EPC-based questions — disadvantages markets without a consistent EPC regime, such as the Netherlands. CRREM adoption is growing but remains inconsistent, especially across US portfolios. The group was clear: frameworks need to flex to different markets, not the other way around.

Delivery stalls before it starts

The biggest barrier to delivery isn’t always capital or regulation — it’s misalignment inside organisations. Deal teams are incentivised to close transactions, not to underwrite sustainability capex, leaving asset management teams to absorb the cost later. Fixing this means embedding sustainability into deal approval, not treating it as a post-close problem.

The market needs proof of value, not more paperwork

Green building certification is widely adopted and well understood by investors, but the group questioned whether it reliably adds value or simply meets expectation. SFDR characteristics are too often selected to fit an existing strategy rather than to set a genuine standard — and LPs rarely ask why. And investor due diligence requests continue to multiply without any real standardisation. The consistent message: the market needs practical, stable tools that prove value — not more boxes to tick.

What’s Next

These insights are feeding directly into EVORA’s research programme and our engagement with GRESB, the Better Buildings Partnership, ULI and policymakers. Watch this space.

Get in touch if you’d like to discuss any of these themes, or to be part of future roundtable conversations.