Green grass under a blue sky

But as the warehouses grow bigger and take up more and more space, the sector’s environmental footprint is obviously expanding too. Some developers and warehouse owners, such as Prologis, are helping us to understand these issues through their transparent approach towards sustainability and regular reporting. In Poland alone, all of Prologis’ parks put together consume almost as much energy as all the iron foundries or mines in the country combined. They also use the same amount of gas for heating as 6,000 family houses.

But Prologis’ response to this has been to set itself some ambitious ESG goals, including a major investment programme aimed at doubling its solar panel global capacity to a gigantic 400 MW in just four years. Furthermore, by 2025 the company aims to instil carbon-neutrality into its process for building new warehouses. Prosperous times are certainly suitable for taking such decisive steps towards making the business more sustainable. As one of the speakers in this publication says, you can’t expect a tree to grow forever, because this goes against our experience that tells us that trees don’t keep growing forever right up to the sky. So we have to apply the same rule towards the booming warehouse market – even though luckily there are no signs yet of a potential slowdown. This is exactly the approach of MLP – a company that serves as a prime example of how to plan your business for the long term.