BlackRock

BlackRock Real Estate is the dedicated real estate investment group within BlackRock Real Assets and the wider BlackRock Alternative Investors platform. With over US$28 billion in AUM, BlackRock Real Estate invests in global strategies for our clients across the risk-return spectrum and provides access to all major real estate types.

In Europe specifically, BlackRock Real Estate has over US$9 billion in AUM across core, core+ and value-add strategies, and has investments in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands. Our investments include properties across the office, retail, industrial and leisure sectors, in addition to primary healthcare and student housing.

Our real estate investment approach is underpinned by a strong commitment to sustainable investing and ESG integration, driven by the conviction that sustainability is a core element of financial performance and that ESG risk is investment risk. As such, BlackRock is committed to deploying our clients’ capital in a sustainable manner, whilst also delivering value creation through active asset management that drives improved sustainability performance at an individual property-level.

Recent initiatives have included: 

  • On-site renewable power: Exploring opportunities for the installation of small-scale renewables and other on-site energy infrastructure. Across our portfolios we have successfully installed rooftop solar on offices and logistics warehouses in Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, United Kingdom and United States. We also continue to roll-out electric-vehicle charge points at several of our shopping centre, retail parks and logistics properties.  
  • Renewable energy procurement: Developing a program to switch our existing landlord energy contracts to green tariffs across our largest UK Property Fund. As of December 2020, over 90% of the portfolio’s energy consumption is now from 100% REGO backed renewable power, which represents an increase from around 60% in 2018. 
  • Benchmarking and transparency: BlackRock has been reporting our Real Estate Funds into GRESB (the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) since 2011. In 2020, in testament to our active approach to sustainable asset management, all of our GRESB submissions outperformed their direct benchmarks, whilst several of our strategies were also awarded “Sector Leader Status”.  

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“We are delighted to be joining the Better Buildings Partnership and to contribute to the strong community of thought leaders in progressing sustainability performance across the property sector. As a major investor in global real estate, we also look forward to sharing and engaging with our peers on how we can continue to enhance our own sustainable investing commitments and best practice.” Katherine Sherwin, Global Head of BlackRock Real Assets Sustainable Investing