Severe precipitation events, forest fires, melting glaciers and polar caps are among the obvious consequences of climate change. International political strategy focuses on greater sustainability, with the aim of achieving climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. As one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, the building sector has the opportunity to make a crucial contribution. In Germany, CO₂ emissions in the sector fell from 210 million tonnes to 120 million tonnes between 1990 and 2020. The aim is to achieve a further reduction to 67 million tonnes by 2030 (Source: Bundesregierung) – a huge challenge for the property industry.

Achieving climate
targets through energy­related renovation

This objective can only be achieved by further high investments in energy-related modernisation. Potential measures include the insulation of building envelopes and roofs, installation of thermally insulated windows, and replacement of heating systems with modern equivalents, ideally fed by renewable energy sources. But not every measure makes equal sense for every building and can have the desired impact on the climate footprint. Aareon offers innovative products and is continually developing further solutions with a view to helping property companies invest as efficiently and strategically as possible.

AiBATROS®:
AI-supported
renovation strategy

One example of an existing solution is the AiBATROS® software from Aareon’s subsidiary, CalCon Deutschland GmbH, which is not just available in Germany, but has also been launched on the Netherlands market by Aareon Nederland. “We start by establishing the building’s current energetic status using a simplified energy requirements process featuring an optimum balance of precision and cost-effectiveness,” explains CalCon’s Managing Director Anke Herrmann. The parameters include the main geometrical dimensions of the building, the condition of building components such as windows and façades, and the building technology.

Dr. Manuel Lindauer from the CalCon product development team adds: “Energetic renovation naturally presents companies with financial challenges. But climate change has shown that we have to become more sustainable.”

Ampolon:
keeping pace with
the start-up scene

Aareon fosters close ties with the PropTech scene through its subsidiary Ampolon, an ecosystem builder that puts start-ups in contact with established players from the property industry. With an eye to keeping abreast of exciting market developments going forward, Ampolon joined forces with digitalisation specialists from the construction and property industry and blackprintpartners GmbH to stage the Decarbonize Real Estate Challenge in November 2021. Some 80 entrants in this pan- European competition were whittled down to 17 finalists whose solutions have the potential to reduce CO₂ significantly in the property sector. From these finalists, the industry partners supporting the Ampolon challenge – Aareon, Aareal Bank, Commerz Real, Drees & Sommer and JLL – selected their personal winners with a view to implementing a pilot project together. Aareon opted for Ampeers Energy – a Munich-based company that supports the decarbonisation of the property industry with intelligent software solutions.

Green IT:
energy efficiency in the
Aareon Data Centre

Digitalisation also offers opportunities for optimisation in the property industry, for instance via connectivity, data analysis and artificial intelligence. Use of the requisite technology is energy-intensive, however. Data centres are now among the biggest energy consumers in Germany. “At the Aareon Data Centre in Mainz, a number of measures are in place to ensure a high level of energy efficiency, resulting in an extremely good Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score of 1.25,” explains Mario Werner, Director of Group IT Services at Aareon. The closer to 1 the PUE score, the better, with scores below 1.3 considered outstanding. “By incorporating cold aisles into the design of our Data Centre, we have managed to lower our energy consumption for cooling considerably. We have tailored the performance of our A/C system perfectly to the quantity of IT hardware to be cooled. We are also reducing the latter quantity by means of efficient usage. In addition, we use the Data Centre’s waste heat to assist the building’s heating system in winter and to replenish the store of geothermal energy in summer. The Data Centre runs exclusively on green electricity, thereby contributing to Aareon’s sustainability strategy,” says Mario Werner.