Aquila Capital pledges to offset emissions of residential developments

The arrangement covers all units developed by Aquila Capital’s Spanish subsidiary AQ Acentor, one of the country’s biggest residential developers.

Hamburg-based energy and climate protection agency KlimaInvest has been mandated to offset the emissions. A typical three-person household in Spain produces two tonnes of CO2 annually from gas and electricity, which Aquila Capital has pledged to compensate for up to two years per unit by funding renewable energy projects launched by KlimaInvest.

“We have been cooperating with KlimaInvest and other initiatives for years and are proud to have been working in a climate-neutral way since 2007,” said Roman Rosslenbroich, chief executive of Aquila Capital.

“Our ambition is to take it a step further by offering, for example, sustainable financing vehicles to our investors, as we did with our first green bond in the hydropower segment.”

Once the deal for the residential units expires, owners and tenants are free to extend the cooperation with KlimaInvest.

Offsetting projects

Carbon offsetting schemes have increasingly been used by individuals and companies as a way of balancing out their own carbon footprints by investing in environmental projects across the world.  

Heathrow’s recently launched carbon-neutral roadmap includes a pledge for the company to “develop and promote” new ways of offsetting carbon. The roadmap came shortly after the company partnered with Lancashire Wildlife Trust and Defra on its first peatland restoration project.

In October, Professional services giant PwC pledged to source 100% renewable electricity for its global operations and to offset all emissions accounted for by flights taken by employees for business purposes.

George Ogleby