Swiss Prime Site is aware of its responsibility when it comes to climate protection and has been committed for some time to contributing towards the 2-degree goal of the Paris Climate Accord and the Swiss Federal Council’s climate neutrality goal. Taking both these targets into account, in 2019 the Company developed a CO₂ reduction pathway for the whole property portfolio. Swiss Prime Site plans to invest around CHF 650 million by 2050 to ensure that the group can also reach the long-term objective of climate neutrality.

More information on group-wide procedures can be found in the Environmental Policy.

Property portfolio focus

The focus of the CO₂ reduction pathway lies on the energy consumption of the property portfolio. By comparison, the CO₂ emissions from the Services segment are negligible (8.8% of total emissions in the reporting year). As Swiss Prime Site’s property portfolio is comparatively young and technologically advanced, energy consumption and CO₂ emissions are already relatively low.

In the reporting year, Swiss Prime Site’s Sustainability Board further tightened the reduction target for the property portfolio. The aim is now to achieve climate neutrality in the operation of the portfolio by 2040. The current CO₂ reduction pathway (plan as at 31.12.2020) factors in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and is based on investment costs of around CHF 610 million for cladding renovations and CHF 40 million for heating replacement measures. As the illustration below shows, Swiss Prime Site is thus significantly exceeding sector-specific reduction scenarios and is making a significant contribution to achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Accord. However, the reduction pathway shows that the climate neutrality target will require further measures. The efforts intensified in the reporting year form the basis on which to move the plan further in the direction of climate neutrality. The plan will be regularly updated and published as part of annual reporting.

The standards for development projects and full renovations of existing properties necessary to achieve the current CO₂ pathway have applied since the reporting year and are set out in detail in the Integrated Report 2019. Detailed information on the calculation methodology can be found in the CO₂ accounting concept.

Measures in the reporting year

In order to plan the measures covering the three action areas – energy, heat and cladding renovation – holistically and co-ordinate them with each other, in the reporting year Swiss Prime Site integrated the requirements of the CO₂ reduction pathway into the property strategies for each individual property in the portfolio. This puts the evaluation of the measures required for the reduction in the context of other key aspects of the property strategy (e.g. market potential, structural condition, renovation cycle) and ensures a holistic perspective on the further development and optimisation of the portfolio. This enables Swiss Prime Site to plan upcoming investments with a long-term focus and in a targeted manner. However, this means that the requirements in all affected business areas have to be taken into account and all those involved along the process chain – from acquisition to development and construction and through to portfolio and asset management – need to be made aware of them. Accordingly, in the reporting year the employees of Swiss Prime Site Immobilien and representatives of Wincasa received training informing them about the relevant process requirements.

In addition to the major strategic CO₂ reduction pathway project, the other group companies are also endeavouring to reduce their own ecological footprint.

More information on this can be found in the GRI Report.