GREEN FINANCING. European Regulations as the basis for ESG Assessment for Real Estate

The Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK) association at the turn of 2022 and 2023 year initiated activities aimed at unifying ESG standards taken into account when making financing and investment decisions in the real estate sector. As part of the work, the “Green Financing” Working Group was established, bringing together PINK members and representatives of several banks operating in Poland and abroad. Participants held a series of meetings aimed at exchanging experiences in assessing real estate sustainability, determining the current status of considering ESG aspects in investment decisions, and defining further steps towards standardizing ESG assessment criteria for real estate evaluations. A summary of the Working Group’s activities carried out in 2023 was presented in the chapter “ESG Criteria: new challenges for banks and requirements for the real estate sector.” in the publication jointly issued with the Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate and the Polish Council of Shopping Centers (PRCH) - “ESG for Commercial Real Estate. Selected issues and practices”.

In the first half of 2024, as part of the Working Group’s efforts, actions were taken to collect and summarize ESG criteria resulting from European regulations directly related to real estate assessment. The work has resulted in this article.

We would like to thank the experts gathered in the Working Group ‘Green Finance’ set up by the Polish Chamber of Commercial Real Estate (PINK), in particular the representatives of the banking sector, as well as industry associations: PINK, POLSIF and PRCH.