The Adler Group plans to halve the greenhouse gas emissions emanating from its buildings by 2030 compared to 2020. This means a reduction from around 35.1 kg of CO2 per square metre of building space in 2021 to around 17.5 kg of CO2 nine years later. By accepting this challenge which is in equal parts economically and socially motivated, the Adler Group will make its contribution to the Paris Agreement. At the same time, the company firmly believes that this action will improve its competitive position on the rental housing market in times of rising costs for energy and carbon emissions.

By far the largest share of the planned measures will be for energetic refurbishment of buildings, because these are the most effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and therefore have the highest climate impact. Insulation of facades, roofs and basements, as well as the installation of new doors and windows will drastically reduce heating energy requirements. However, since building renovations are more planning-intensive than the other measures and require a longer time, the full impact of these renovations will not be felt until 2025.

Replacing and converting heating technology, especially in those buildings that are already relatively energy-efficient, will have a much faster effect, i.e. from as soon as 2022. This will reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly and quickly, allowing the company to cover nearly half the distance to its reduction target in the course of 2024.

Until 2030, the Adler Group will upgrade a large part of its rental portfolio with a total area of 1.8 million m² in terms of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. According to current calculations, the capital expenditure needed for the energetic refurbishment and the replacement and conversion of heating systems will amount to around 275 million euros by 2030. At approximately 80 percent, most of this amount will be for renovating and insulating buildings, roughly seven percent for the electrification of heating, i.e. to replace conventional heating with heat pumps/geothermal energy or combined heat and power units, and five percent for the switch to environmentally friendly energy such as biomass or district heating. Other activities will account for around eight percent. The Plan to Halve Carbon Emissions of the total investment. Under the activities currently planned, an average of 2.2 percent of the rental portfolio will undergo energy-efficiency modernisation or improvement each year.

The energetic refurbishment or upgrading of existing properties greatly enhances the carbon footprint of the Adler Group’s property portfolio, but is not enough by itself to achieve the goal of halving emissions. It will also take the addition of new buildings with excellent energy efficiency and emissions intensity to the portfolio. Over the coming years, the Adler Group is planning to build approximately 360,000 m² of climate-neutral living space for its own portfolio.

In addition to the investments in the energy-efficient refurbishment of existing properties, there are also investments in new properties - which are already planned anyway. These will be actively adapted to climate change: For example with new drainage systems, the calculation of increased wastewater quantities and the consideration of greater wind loads when planning roofs. In all new buildings, the Adler Group is committed to including energy consumption management with an internal tracking and monitoring system. It will then be possible to achieve the targets thanks to the combination of the energy-efficiency improvement of the existing portfolio and climate-neutral new construction.