Prologis Europe owns and leases modern logistics facilities to a diverse base of customers principally across business-to-business and retail and online fulfilment. We now operate in 12 countries in Europe, across 22,2 million square metres with a leasing activity of 2,810,211 square metres. But our size and healthy liquidity is the least to remember us by.
We issued our first sustainability report in 2011 and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is woven into our fabric and steers decision-making from the boardroom to all corners of our business. We ensure that our buildings are constantly cutting edge from a technology standpoint, be it sensors, solar and EV charging, but also in keeping with our ESG goals in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
ADVERTISEMENTOur goals include 1 GW of solar generation capacity (supported by storage) by 2025, 100% carbon-neutral construction by 2025 and net zero by 2040 for Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Since 2019, we have been carbon neutral for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and we have decreased our Scope 3 emissions by 38% from a 2016 baseline.
Leading recent examples in Europe include Park Moissy II DC1 near Paris, built with no gas connection and relies on design efficiencies, rooftop solar and borehole geothermal energy storage for heating, cooling and power. Having just obtained BREEAM Outstanding, Moissy II DC1 achieved the highest score worldwide for a logistics building. In the Netherlands, Prologis Park Nieuwegein DC2BC achieved the recent, highest ever, WELL Platinum certification; while L’Oréal in Muggensturm near Karlsruhe is not only a carbon-neutral facility but also designed to provide breeding homes to skylarks with its 30,000 square metres of green rooftops.
In the past twelve months, we have added more than 600,000 square metres of logistics real estate to our European portfolio, bringing our holdings to 19M square metres of rentable space for specialist and e-commerce warehousing across more than 900 buildings in Europe.
We are proudly a customer-centric logistics real estate provider that brings value beyond the real estate: Our customers’ needs, convenience and reliability are at the forefront of our business making decisions. In this endeavour, we work with our customers to continually refine our operations, energy, upskilling and training, mobility care and digital offerings.
NEW OR ACQUIRED, OUR BUILDINGS BEAR THE PROLOGIS STANDARD
We are a circular investor; we invest in properties that align with our ESG endeavours so that they in return support our customer's business goals and sustainability efforts. Prologis’ access reach, financial backing and solid reputation have allowed us an almost unmatched ability to upgrade already existing buildings that we acquire to our high ESG standards, speculative developments and build-to-suit developments to the highest spec.
ADVERTISEMENTIn 2022, we have expanded our portfolio with recent acquisitions in the Netherlands, Germany and UK. These have continued to be in urban sites so that our customers can provide a 30-min-or-less service to the community as well as offering real estate logistics to life sciences and data centre operations. Prologis is committed to being a leader in providing best-in-class across new and emerging industries.
INNOVATION AND OUR OWN RESEARCH BACK OUR ESG DECISIONS
Integrating ESG strategy goes beyond delivering a green circular building. It involves gathering all the data, applying a comprehensive methodology, not shying away from engaging in hard conversations and providing solutions that address pain points. As a philosophy and a job, it is never-ending and highly energising.
While we deliver circular buildings at the forefront of innovation and sustainability, our work doesn’t end there. We like to work with our customers and the local communities to see how we can further improve our parks through active green planning, be that through collective clean energy programmes, or continuously improving our spaces through PARKlife™ schemes.
CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY IS KNOWING WHEN TO HOLD FIRM AND WHEN TO BE FLEXIBLE
While our focus on ESG is unwavering, our design in every aspect is flexible to shift and grow with evolving needs of customers, environment and social landscape we’re in not just for today or tomorrow, but in 5, 10 years. This means we approach technology as fluid; our flexible backend network infrastructure serves as an adaptable, compatible platform for future technological advances.
Our customers are paramount to us: constant conversations allow us to truly understand their evolving needs so that intuitive and personalised solutions continue to improve utilisation, reduce impact and provide a more enjoyable and safer workplace. Our flexibility means that the burden of IT on the customer is minimised and install-and-remove waste is mitigated.
Our buildings are not only designed with environmental sustainability in mind but also with the flexibility to sustain our customers’ evolving needs, a host of SMART and sustainable measures, WELL-building features, BREEAM certification and circular design. Prologis is determined to stay a building and tech innovator.
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET AND ACTIONING YOUR PRINCIPLES OFTEN LEAD TO SUCCESSFUL INDUSTRY ESG BENCHMARKS
We were one of the first companies in the logistics real estate global space to develop a suite of asset-linked bonds that looked beyond profit, through the Prologis European Life Fund (PELF). Our Green Bonds are aligned with the UN’s 2040 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Goals, and proceeds are used to fund green energy and environmental improvements. We are now at a 93% adoption rate, while many others are only at 10-15%.
Being an industry leader in issuing green bonds, we fund investments in sustainable buildings and renewable energy projects across the globe, making real inroads in creating a better future. Every Green Bond gives you a little financing advantage over the market; it can be funnelled back into our PELF provisional programs driving awareness and action to remove CO2 from the ecosystem and at the same time utilise renewable resources optimally.
