The greening of finance

Anyone regularly reading the news from the real estate market on the pages of (for example) Eurobuild CEE may have noticed that recently investors have been increasingly turning to ‘green loans’ and ‘green bonds’ in order to finance or refinance their acquisitions, developments and the existing assets in their portfolios. But why has ‘green financing’ become such a current buzzword? What forms does it take? And is the impulse behind this trend due to genuine concerns about the environmental impact of real estate investment activity – or is it being forced upon the market by legal obligations? The environmental impact of real estate simply cannot be underestimated. According to the International Energy Agency, in global terms, the operations of buildings account for 30 pct of energy consumption and 26 pct of global energy-related emissions. Added to this is the fact that the expectation is that the global floor area will increase significantly