Managing sustainability

Targets

Aareal Bank Group has been accompanying and supporting the sustainable transformation of the economy and society for years with its systematic approach to sustainability. We want to do our share to help meet international climate protection goals such as those set out in the Paris Agreement on climate change and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is because, as a financial services provider focusing on the property industry, we are active in a sector that is instrumental to ESG transition.

The property sector accounts for a significant proportion of global energy consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, this sector has a responsibility to realise potential savings in this area, which are substantial in some cases. ESG criteria play an increasingly important role not only in lending but also on the funding side of our business, in our investment portfolio, and in our digital product portfolio. Above and beyond this, we consider the inclusion of ESG risks as a fundamental necessity for ensuring our long-term business success. At the same time, enhancing transparency with respect to ESG aspects for the properties we finance allows us to manage our business activities in such a way that we can make a contribution to reaching international climate action efforts. 

We are aware of our corporate responsibility and hence aim to help shape market developments when it comes to implementing ESG aspects. For example, we monitor political developments at national and EU level closely, contributing our expertise in this area through consultation procedures.

Objectives:

• Drive decarbonisation of our corporate real estate financing portfolio: 
  Aareal Bank consistently measures and manages both its own emissions and those of its portfolio, thus entrenching decarbonisation as a firm component of its corporate strategy. The greatest decarbonisation lever here is its own loan portfolio, for which the respective decarbonisation strategy was developed as part of a transition plan. 2023 serves as the base year in which the average greenhouse gas emission intensity of the portfolio was around 55 kg CO₂ e/m². For 2030, we target a reduction of 40% compared to the base year to approximately 33 kg CO₂ e/m².
   
• Increase in green loan volume: 
  By 2028, we plan to grow our green loan volume to a target range of € 10–12 billion, so as to drive forward financing of sustainable properties in a targeted manner.
   
• Regular Issuance of green funding products 
  We plan to continue to be active as a regular issuer of green funding instruments in 2026 and beyond. 
   
• Responsible use of natural resources: 
  At Company level, continuously cutting energy usage and avoiding carbon emissions play an important role in our internal planning and optimisation measures. In line with this, we always apply the principle of “avoid before reduce before offset”. In addition, all unavoidable carbon emissions from Scopes 1, 2 (market-based) and 3.6 will be offset again in 2026.