The OID and the Sustainable Building Plan formalize the Charter of Commitment to Adapting the Real Estate Sector to Climate Change

This unprecedented initiative aims to support industry players in implementing concrete actions to anticipate climate risks and strengthen the resilience of their buildings, their organizations and, more broadly, the sector.

During this evening, Juliette Lefébure, Director General of the OID and Philippe Pelletier, President of the Sustainable Building Plan, reviewed the genesis of the Charter and highlighted the urgency of adaptation in the real estate sector. The leaders of the partners of the Building Adaptation Program (BAP) represented by Pascal Jahan, Real Estate Director of Caisse des Dépôts, Nicolas Joly, Managing Director of Icade, Badr Rharbi, Technical Director of La Poste Immobilier, Jean-Claude Bassien, Deputy Managing Director of Nexity and Aude Grant, Managing Director of SFL were able to give their vision of adaptation and the expected role of the Charter for their company around a round table. Then, Victor Pianet Vauthier, Project Manager at the OID, presented the commitments of the Charter, as well as the schedule and activities planned for the first year.

To close this evening, the directors of the 18 companies involved (BNP Paribas Real Estate, Bouygues Immobilier, Caisse des Dépôts, CBRE France, CDC Habitat, Covea Immobilier, Esset PM, GA Smart Building, Icade, In'Li, La Poste Immobilier, Nexity, OFI Invest, Perial, SFL, Société de la Tour Eiffel, SwissLife AM, Tikehau Capital) signed the Charter and thus formalized their collective and lasting mobilization around adaptation.

Why a Charter?

Announced last June at the Immobilier & Prospectives conference: Engaging the Real Estate Sector Towards Resilience, this charter embodies several years of work carried out by the OID and the Sustainable Building Plan on the issue of adaptation. Faced with the intensification of heat waves, floods, and other climate hazards, it responds to a requirement: to provide the real estate sector with a common, structured, and measurable framework for action. The charter is aimed at all public and private decision-makers in the real estate sector wishing to engage in an adaptation process. It pursues two objectives: to accelerate awareness of the risks to which assets are exposed and to support the implementation of effective and proportionate adaptation measures.

Seven commitments to structure action

The signatories undertake to implement the charter through seven articles structured around three main sections:

• Buildings: analyze climate risks by 2050 according to a pessimistic warming scenario, define quantified objectives to reduce the vulnerability of assets identified as priorities and deploy adaptation actions, including nature-based solutions.
• The company: Lead by example by adapting its own offices and integrating climate issues into its internal practices. This includes implementing business continuity plans and training employees on adaptation issues, with differentiated paths depending on their roles.
• The sector: contribute to the development of skills in the sector, by disseminating best practices among service providers, suppliers and customers, and by sharing feedback to fuel collective dynamics.

A toolbox and monitoring to support stakeholders

To ensure the effectiveness of the approach, the OID and the PBD provide signatories with a comprehensive technical toolbox. It includes guides, methods, resources, and monitoring indicators to systematize risk analyses, prioritize, and implement coherent adaptation plans. A sectoral monitoring system, based on a limited number of indicators, will allow for the collective assessment of signatories' progress. The data collected will be subject to aggregated and anonymized reporting to preserve confidentiality while sharing results and lessons learned across the sector. Signatories will be invited to contribute to this dynamic during annual meetings designed to promote exchanges, transparency, and the continuous improvement of practices.

A key step for the resilience of the real estate sector

For Juliette Lefébure, Director General of the OID: “This launch marks a turning point for the sector and demonstrates that adaptation is now integrated at the highest decision-making level. The community of signatories brings together stakeholders with a wide variety of profiles – investors, developers, operators, insurers, and public stakeholders. This diversity is the strength of the approach: everyone brings their vision and expertise, and contributes to a common base of actions. We are already seeing a strong ripple effect, which places adaptation at the heart of the sector’s priorities. This charter will help guide the entire sector to collectively take the necessary measures to address this major challenge.”

With the signing of this charter, the OID and the Sustainable Building Plan affirm their desire to place climate adaptation on the same level as decarbonization and energy performance, by giving the sector the means to prepare for the transformations already underway.

Actors wishing to get involved can contact the OID to join the community of signatories and participate in the collective dynamic.