Logistics Real Estate Accelerates Its Green Transition

It is time for an initial assessment of the charter of reciprocal commitments between the French government and AFILOG members for the environmental and economic performance of French logistics real estate. And it is positive. Tracking the efforts made by association members since July 2021, when the document was signed, shows that logistics real estate’s green transition is gathering pace.

“Fifty-six projects representing more than 2.6 million square meters of buildings have been included in the charter process, explains Salvi Cals, co-lead of AFILOG’s working group on monitoring commitments. Some projects had been initiated before the charter was signed, highlighting the iterative process begun several years ago by industry professionals to deliver the green transition. Today, the vast majority of new projects comply with the commitments made in the charter.” First among them are those concerning energy generation and the environmental performance of buildings.

Covering more than half of the roofs of new warehouses with photovoltaic panels has become virtually standard practice to produce energy consumed by site users or fed back into the distribution grid. “We are not quite at 100% since the charter was signed, but we will fully meet this commitment very soon, says Cécile Tricault, Prologis’s senior vice president for Southern Europe. We are putting together a team whose mission will be to make our group an energy producer, including in France, over the coming years.”

In carbon-neutrality terms, several pioneering projects have been identified, including the facility delivered by Prologis to Monoprix in Moissy-Cramayel at the end of 2021. “We continue to work hand in hand with our client to fine-tune the project, because its purpose is to be decarbonized throughout its life cycle, not only upon delivery,” Cécile Tricault stresses. Globally, the group has committed to achieving carbon neutrality in its activities and operations by 2040. “As soon as it is economically viable, we will develop new projects that go even further than the Moissy-Cramayel facility, achieving 100% decarbonization—or even warehouses that act as carbon sinks.” Other major environmental issues—land efficiency and biodiversity protection—are also among AFILOG members’ commitments.

“Logistics real estate professionals were already seeking to prioritize brownfield sites over undeveloped land before the charter was signed,” Salvi Cals notes. “They are continuing their efforts in this area, with nearly 60% of new projects still following this approach.” Panattoni, a logistics developer whose French business is headed by Salvi Cals, has for example just begun construction with ADM on a 45,000-square-meter logistics facility in Allonne, near Beauvais, on a 15-hectare industrial brownfield site.

At the same time, more than 80% of projects recorded in the charter monitoring process preserve existing vegetation outside the building footprint and roadways. The same proportion involves planting trees and hedges. In addition, around nine out of 10 projects use the services of an ecologist. And nearly all new warehouses implement measures (nest boxes, shelters, etc.) to accommodate and enhance biodiversity. “We are working with the BiodiverCity label to install beehives at our sites,” says Cécile Tricault. “Rather than honey production, which could be seen as greenwashing, we supplement these installations with pollen analyses around our parks to identify the presence of heavy metals, pesticides, invasive species, and native species—or their absence. Based on this data, we roll out initiatives to improve the environment.”

“Beginning in 2023, AFILOG members that signed the charter will incorporate the infiltration of 100% of rainwater, as close as possible to where it falls, into their procedures,” says the co-lead of AFILOG’s working group on monitoring commitments. Ecological management of landscaped areas, including on-site reuse of pruning waste, grass clippings, and material from selective mowing, will also be an area of focus in the coming months.

In the medium term, efforts will also need to address existing buildings. “Ultimately, we will apply the charter across our entire portfolio—140 buildings in France representing 3.2 million square meters,” Cécile Tricault explains. We are in the midst of an audit phase so that we can then define an action plan and roll it out over the coming years.” A new phase of acceleration in logistics real estate’s green transition is already taking shape.  

“The French government has honored its commitments to clarify regulations and facilitate the review of project applications, as provided for in the charter: professionals must now fully make use of the tools it contains.” In addition to these two aspects, recalled by Geoffroy Cailloux, deputy director for market services at the Directorate General for Enterprise, the document also provides for the involvement of local authorities in making the signatories’ ambitions operational. Accordingly, nine regional logistics conferences have been held since the end of 2021.

“They have put logistics back at the heart of dialogue among the French government’s decentralized services and prompted meetings with industry professionals,” adds Geoffroy Cailloux. “The second phase must make it possible to better anticipate future developments by aligning the square-meter requirements estimated by professionals, particularly AFILOG members, with the land supply offered by local authorities. The French government will facilitate the consolidation of this data and propose ways to use it in connection with existing schemes, such as the brownfield fund and the turnkey industrial sites program.”

“At these conferences, which address logistics as a whole, warehouses and land issues feature prominently,” says Anne-Marie Idrac, president of France Logistique. “We are seeing that circumstances vary depending on the degree of land development and the importance attached to logistics in each region’s economic policy. There is still work to do to align supply and demand, but we are heading in the right direction with a method that raises awareness of this sector’s importance to France through its social and economic value, green-transition, and innovation issues.”