Sometimes the best thing you can do is to do nothing. For example, by simply not mowing the lawn. In this case, doing nothing has an impact: an unmown lawn makes it easier for small creatures such as insects to find enough food – and thus helps to prevent their extinction. However, this action alone is not enough to meet a challenge that is often underestimated in its importance: the protection of biodiversity. Property owners and managers should take a closer look at the issue and take active measures. After all, in addition to the effects on the environment and climate, the economic consequences are also immense.
Economic performance and biodiversity go side by side
According to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity is the variety of all living organisms, habitats and ecosystems on land, in water and in the air. They form the basis for many things that are essential for human survival and prosperity, such as clean air, clean water, climate regulation and fertile soils. According to a 2020 study by the World Economic Forum, around 44 billion US dollars in annual economic output depends at least partly on biodiversity – around half of global GDP. This also applies to the real estate industry, which processes natural resources such as wood, sand and gravel.
These foundations are at risk. For example, the number of vertebrate populations on Earth has shrunk by around 70 per cent in the last 50 years, and the number of insects by 80 per cent. Globally, only 23 per cent of the Earth's surface is still considered "wilderness" and not used for industrial purposes. The decline in plants and soil also reduces the capacity to absorb CO2 emissions, which in turn further fuels climate change. Studies calculate that the costs that would have to be incurred by 2030 to prevent further losses could reach up to 967 billion US dollars per year.
If nothing changes, the consequences will be fatal. The loss of biodiversity could reduce global GDP by as much as USD 2.7 trillion by 2030. However, the ecological consequences would be even more dramatic than the economic ones, because people would lack the basic necessities for survival. "This makes the issue even more important than climate change," says biologist Dr Frauke Fischer, one of Germany's most recognised experts on biodiversity: "We have to protect what is still there and restore what we have lost."
The real estate industry is becoming increasingly aware of the problem
The real estate industry is in a position to make a decisive contribution here, as its impact on biodiversity is enormous. It consumes resources for the construction of buildings and the production of building materials, causes noise, dust and chemicals to be released into the environment during the construction process, requires large amounts of energy to operate buildings and is responsible for the sealing of surfaces. In Germany alone, around 30 hectares of land are covered with asphalt, concrete or paving stones every day, which corresponds to an area of around 40 football pitches.
"Public interest in the topic is increasing," says Elena Winter, Senior Manager Sustainability at Union Investment. "Tenants and institutional investors are increasingly asking how Union Investment is addressing the issue of biodiversity." Winter says that market pressure is not yet strong enough to force action, but "we want to go ahead with development. That's why we are already taking action."
"We want to take the lead in developing biodiversity. That's why we're taking action now." Elena Winter, Senior Manager Sustainability Union Investment Resl Estate GmbH
Biodiversity guideline provides initial push
In collaboration with expert Frauke Fischer, Union Investment has therefore developed a biodiversity guideline. This has been drawn up for all asset classes of Union Investment and also contains a separate chapter on real estate. It analyses interdependencies and identifies opportunities for influence along the company's own value chain.
The guideline does not yet prescribe any measures, because meaningful and effective measures cannot be implemented in every phase of a property's life cycle. "The spectrum is already much more limited in existing properties than in project development or urban planning, for example," says Elena Winter. "Therefore, our probably greatest lever for protecting biodiversity is to continue to counteract climate change." With its "manage to green" - strategy, Union Investment has been working for years to achieve climate neutrality for its property portfolio by 2050.
Union Investment is already implementing concrete measures to protect biodiversity: an environmental due diligence is carried out for every purchase, in which both the soil and the building are checked for the presence of environmentally relevant or harmful substances. Taxonomy checks also take biodiversity into account through the "Do no Significant Harm" criteria – as does the "Sustainable Investment Check", a scoring system developed by Union Investment that checks the qualitative sustainability criteria of properties.
The challenges are considerable: from the difficulty of measuring to the lack of data and the need for new instruments. "But Union Investment is aware of its responsibility and is constantly trying to implement sustainability in a comprehensive way," says Winter. "The guideline is only the first part of the process."