Alina Oprea • 9 March, 2023 at 8:11 PM
Iulius, developer and operator of mixed-use urban regeneration projects in Romania, is strengthening its sustainability objectives for the coming years and, in this sense, has concluded a partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The company plans to develop a strategy to decarbonize the entire company's portfolio and to reach the target of net-zero emissions. Through the Green Pathways for Real Estate Institutional Portfolios (GRIP) platform, IFC will support the company in the process of creating an action plan that will contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of the entire portfolio. The partnership marks the first commitment of this kind in Romania.
“Buildings are responsible for a third of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Through this partnership, Iulius and IFC are helping to accelerate climate action in real-estate development”, said Ary Naim, Regional Manager for IFC in Central and Southeast Europe.
The developer announces that has always built in an environmentally conscious manner and owns the only LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified nationwide shopping mall network in Romania. This adds to the Palas Iaşi and Iulius Town Timişoara mixed-use projects and the 15 office buildings in the United Business Center network in Iași, Timișoara, and Cluj-Napoca, which are all green building certified.
“This new partnership will help us take our sustainability strategy to the next level. The company has already undergone a comprehensive process of implementing high standards of energy efficiency, sustainable management of green spaces, outdoor surfaces and waste, and other sustainable solutions, as confirmed by the LEED certifications. However, we want to contribute even more to maintaining a healthy environment by reducing the carbon footprint in all eight of our projects,” said Dan Adrian Chelaru, Group Sustainability Officer Iulius.
The projects developed by Iulius also benefit from hundreds of bike parking spaces, electric vehicle charging stations, and excellent access to public transit, all of which help reduce the use of personal vehicles and cut pollution. They are also the only real estate projects in Romania to include urban gardens, which are initial investments upwards of €17 million.
In 2021 Iulius also obtained the first green loan granted by IFC to a Romanian company, in the amount of €72 million for the Palas Campus in Iaşi. The ample office project, set to open this spring, is also undergoing a dual green certification process: EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) by IFC and LEED by the US Green Building Council.