We are a global non-profit organization
The CRREM Foundation is a Netherlands-based non-profit established in 2024, building on more than seven years of international research and market application. What began as an EU-funded research project has evolved into a globally recognized transition risk assessment framework used by some of the world’s largest institutional investors such as pension and sovereign wealth funds.
Today, CRREM is a truly global initiative, grounded in climate science and local market expertise, and supported by an international network of governing bodies and a dedicated operational team. We exist to increase transparency and comparability in the real estate sector by overseeing the global standard for climate alignment and transition risk assessment.
We develop transition pathways for real estate
The CRREM Pathways reflect the emissions and energy intensity levels buildings must meet to stay aligned with a 1.5°C warming scenario. With more than 1,000 property-type- and jurisdiction-specific pathways spanning 44 countries, the CRREM Pathways offer comprehensive coverage across global markets. They are publicly available for open-access use.
By translating climate science into property level risk indicators, the CRREM Pathways enable investors to move from awareness to action, informing capital allocation, engagement, retrofit sequencing, risk pricing, and long-term portfolio resilience.
We help investors assess long-term risk
The CRREM Pathways are especially valuable for long-term investors such as pension and sovereign wealth funds, who must safeguard value and deliver returns over generations.
For these investors, transition risk is not a short-term volatility or compliance issue, but a structural financial risk that directly affects their fiduciary duty, long-term funding ratios, and intergenerational equity. Managing this risk is therefore core to prudent long-term portfolio management.
CRREM risk assessments are anchored in the assumption of an inevitable policy response. Markets and regulators will ultimately internalize climate constraints through regulation, pricing mechanisms, building standards, and capital market expectations. The CRREM Pathways represent a smoothed, forward-looking proxy of an orderly transition, assuming timely and gradually strengthening policy and market action consistent with climate science. This provides a transparent and stable benchmark against which real estate can be consistently assessed across markets.
In practice, however, delayed action increases the likelihood of abrupt policy tightening, accelerated obsolescence, higher retrofit costs, and sudden market repricing, dynamics typically associated with disorderly and financially disruptive transitions. The further assets deviate from the CRREM Pathways today, the greater the exposure to sharp value adjustments tomorrow.
From regional research to international reference
CRREM began as a research initiative funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Project grant. This was to develop the first iteration of CRREM Pathways, specific for European countries. It was led by a consortium of universities, with input from key market players.
APG, PGGM, NBIM, GPIF, and La Caisse joined forces to facilitate the global roll-out of CRREM, recognizing the methodology's value for managing long-term portfolio transition risk.
The CRREM Foundation was established in 2024 to safeguard the public use of the CRREM Pathways and to steward their scientific integrity.
