The Energy Efficiency of Corporate Real Estate Assets: The Role of Professional Management for Corporate Environmental Performance

Despite the rising information about the ecological footprint and greenhouse gas externalities of corporates' activities only little is known about the energy efficiency of corporate real estate assets. When considering achievements from the past, such as significant reduction of carbon emissions and towards carbon accounting, the energy consumption of corporate real estate assets is of emerging interest within the sustainability strategy of corporations. On the contrary to residential and commercial buildings within the real estate industry accessibility to profound datasets for corporate assets in terms of energy performance is rather difficult. When employing a unique multi-national dataset of big-box wholesale buildings obtained from METRO Cash & Carry (MCC) the authors investigate the relationship between energy consumption, physical building characteristics and the potential impact of corporate management. The study analyzes the dataset with electricity and heat consumption in a panel regression to investigate expected higher levels of energy savings over time. All above insights about energy efficiency measures of corporate real estate assets within a special asset class we analyze the contribution of professional management towards a more efficient corporate environmental performance.