Union Investment backs green council's sustainable development pledge

Germany's Union Investment will take sustainability issues into account when making real estate investments, according to Reinhard Kutscher, chairman of Union Investment's board of directors. 'It is important that we anticipate future trends so that we can assimilate them into emerging standards, which in turn will impact on property valuations,' he said.

Kutscher's statement was in response to the decision by the German Sustainable Building Council (GeSBC) and the Federal Building Ministry to jointly develop a German sustainability certificate, which will incorporate future European legislation and standardisation in terms of sustainable construction. The German certificate, which will be unveiled on 17-18 June 2008 during the Consense International Congress and Trade Fair for Sustainable Building in Stuttgart, will be aimed at dealing with economic issues such as property value retention and life cycle costs.

'The new German certification system covers all three aspects of sustainability: the ecological, societal and economic side of it. We expect a market to develop for companies whose rental decisions are increasingly influenced by their corporate social responsibility (CSR), with the sustainability issue playing a major role,' Kutscher said.

According to Kutscher, the German certification system will also help to create greater market transparency, enabling specific German requirements to be included and presented clearly to foreign investors.

'Virtually every country has its own certification standard - France has HQE, Japan CASBEE, while the UK has BREEAM. If the German certification standard is combined with an innovative approach that goes beyond existing initiatives and, importantly, can also be adapted, it will be good news for the German real estate market,' he said.