The real estate industry's climate emissions account for a significant part of the total climate footprint and as one of Sweden's largest property owners, Akademiska Hus can make a big difference. From 2022, the company will work on the basis of a new climate goal – climate neutrality throughout the value chain until 2035.
Akademiska Hus is also covered by the EU Taxonomy Regulation, which contains rules that determine when an economic activity is to be considered environmentally sustainable. In this way, investments can be compared based on common definitions of what is sustainable.
For Akademiska Hus, this means that from 2022 this means compiling the financial status, mainly generated turnover, and measuring what proportion of it is classified as sustainable according to the legal requirement. From 2023, reporting on goal fulfilment regarding technical criteria will also be included. Akademiska Hus has more than 550 buildings in its portfolio that are analysed on the basis of their goal fulfilment linked to the technical criteria. This is then set against the financial outcome of the buildings.
"Based on our large property portfolio, digitalisation of the process has been a clear goal and has now resulted in a unique, seamless and automated tool for financial follow-up in accordance with the new legal requirements. The tool is part of being able to follow up on reporting requirements, but also an important step for Akademiska Hus to be able to analyse and steer the business towards becoming even more sustainable," says Erik Florman, Head of Sustainability at Akademiska Hus.
The outcome will be reported for the first time in the Annual and Sustainability Report for the financial year 2022. The new technical criteria apply to the financial year 2022 and will not be published until 2023.
About the EU Taxonomy
The EU Taxonomy, is part of the European Commission's EU Green Deal action plan. It is a framework for sustainable finance with the aim of serving as a common language and a basis for assessing which economic activities are environmentally sustainable. The goal of the taxonomy is to make it easier to make investments that promote the transition to a more sustainable economy, as well as to contribute to meeting the requirements of Agenda 2030 and the global goals.
