The photovoltaic panel project adds up to a total area of 26,000 sqm, and the panels are installed on all eight properties in the portfolio: Mixed-use urban regeneration complexes Palas Iași and Iulius Town Timișoara; The three shopping malls in the Iulius Mall national network: Iaşi, Cluj-Napoca, and Suceava; Palas Campus Iași, the largest office building in the country (60,000 sqm), set to open this spring; The two Iași-based Family Market convenience projects in Miroslava and Bucium.

The renewable energy generated by the new solution will be enjoyed by all the uses comprised in Iulius projects, i.e. the mixed-use projects, shopping malls, and office buildings. It is estimated that this will save up to 10% of the total energy consumed across the group.

The effect is the elimination of 1,500 tons of CO2/year, the equivalent of a forest with over 20,000 trees.

“Iulius is the only company on the Romanian real estate market to make an investment of this magnitude in all its assets. The production of energy from renewable sources for our own consumption is one of the objectives in the sustainability strategy of IULIUS, which confirms our concern for reducing our carbon footprint. In fact, all the buildings we erect, whether shopping malls or office buildings, are environmentally friendly and LEED certified. By means of this project, which we estimate will generate upwards of 5,500 MWh per year, we manage to cut 1,500 tons of CO2/year, which would otherwise result from conventional sources. To better understand the impact, the same effect would be achieved by a mature forest with more than 20,000 trees. This project helps us achieve multiple objectives: environmental protection and better control of energy costs, which is very important in the current context,” said Robert Ghercă, Chief Technical Manager Iulius.

In addition to the direct economic impact by reducing the costs of purchasing electricity, the new green project by Iulius helps fight climate change by reducing the carbon footprint, a goal set by the European Union under the Green Deal program, which seeks to make Europe climate neutral by the year 2050.

Last year, Iulius launched its 2021 Sustainability Report and announced it reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 16% compared to 2019, while also achieving a 33% water consumption efficiency across the entire group. The Environmental chapter of the report also highlights a 15% reduction in total energy consumption compared to 2019, as well as a 34% reduction in the volume of household waste.

Iulius recently signed a partnership with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, for the purpose of developing a strategy to decarbonize the entire portfolio of the company and achieve net-zero emissions. This would be the first such engagement in Romania.