Iulius has signed a partnership with IFC, a World Bank member, to create a decarbonation strategy for the entire property portfolio

Iulius has signed a partnership with IFC, a World Bank member, to create a decarbonation strategy for the entire property portfolio

Iulius has signed a partnership with IFC, a World Bank member, to create a decarbonation strategy for the entire property portfolio 2048 1152 ROMANIA PROPERTY CLUB

17.03.2023

IULIUS has 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. IFC will use the Green Pathways for Real Estate Institutional Portfolios (GRIP) platform to provide solutions for defining, implementing and financing the plans of IULIUS to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to reach CO2 neutrality as soon as possible. This would be the first such engagement in Romania.

IULIUS Palas, Iasi

IULIUS is consolidating its sustainability goals for the following years and has thus entered into a partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC)a member of the World Bank Group. IFC will use the GRIP platform to support the company in the process of putting together a plan of actions to help reduce the carbon footprint across the entire portfolio. “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.

In fact, IULIUS 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. “We are particularly excited about this new partnership, which 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. 

Examples of certifications 

  • Palas Iași – the only LEED® Neighborhood Development certified project in Central and Eastern Europe
  • All 15 buildings in the United Business Center network are LEED® certified, of which UBC 0 (the most recent certification) and UBC 3 Timișoara are LEED® Platinum certified.

In addition to meeting the highest modern technical requirements, their implemented solutions, comfort and safety, the projects developed by IULIUS also benefit from hundreds of bike parking spaces, electric vehicle charging stations, excellent access to public transit, all of which helps reduce the use of personal vehicles and cuts pollution. They are also the only real estate projects in Romania to include urban gardens, which are initial investment 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 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.