REAL estate valuers need to start accounting for the embodied carbon footprint of their properties so that the rest of the industry pays heed to their environmental impact, said Schroders global head of real estate Sophie van Oosterom.

Speaking to The Business Times (BT) in Singapore, van Oosterom shared that Schroders includes the cost of carbon emissions – both operational and embodied – in its underwriting. Accounting for embodied carbon, which includes the life-cycle emissions embedded in the materials and processes used in construction, is atypical in the real estate industry and in real estate investment trusts (Reits).

That is “because the valuers are not doing so”, van Oosterom said. “And the Reits, along with the rest of the industry, have to go with third-party valuations.”