By Brendan Dorrian, Associate Director, CBRE NI

As we mark Earth Day 2026, this year’s theme, ‘Our Power, Our Planet’, is a timely reminder that driving meaningful climate action is something we must all play a part in. For the built environment, that means harnessing data, partnerships and innovation to drive measurable change.

At CBRE NI, sustainability is not a standalone initiative, it is embedded across our service lines and central to how we advise clients, manage assets and future-proof portfolios.

This approach underpins our longstanding partnership with Climate Essentials. Together, we are taking a structured, data-driven approach to understanding and reducing carbon emissions across both our own operations and the assets we manage.

This collaboration is focused on four clear priorities – implementing reduction strategies aligned to ESG targets, improving operational efficiency across managed properties, developing an understanding of property-level emissions, and actively engaging occupiers in carbon management.

A key milestone in this journey has been our pilot at Adelaide Exchange, where we worked with occupiers to measure operational carbon footprints for the first time. This initiative not only enabled the creation of a comprehensive building-level carbon profile but also provided critical Scope 3 emissions data – a longstanding challenge across the real estate sector. The insight gained is already informing more targeted and effective reduction strategies.

We have since expanded this approach across the City Quays development, implementing the Climate Essentials platform at City Quays 1, 2 and 3. This provides tenants with consistent, transparent access to emissions data, while enabling our property management teams to build a complete and auditable carbon picture of each asset.

Utility data (including electricity, gas and water) is centrally recorded, ensuring accuracy and consistency in reporting. Tenants benefit from access to Climate Essentials Lite, allowing them to understand their emissions by scope, benchmark their performance and support their own ESG reporting and compliance requirements.

For CBRE NI, the Climate Essentials Analytics platform provides estate-wide visibility. This allows us to identify trends, track decarbonisation progress and prioritise interventions where they will have the greatest impact. Crucially, ongoing tenant engagement through onboarding, clinics and expert support, ensures that data is not just collected, but actively used to drive change.

Building on this progress, we are now planning a portfolio-wide initiative to establish high-level carbon baselines across a broad range of managed assets. Working with Climate Essentials, this project will align with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and incorporate all relevant energy sources, from electricity and gas to heating oil.

Once established, these baselines will enable us to benchmark performance, identify inefficiencies and model tailored decarbonisation pathways for each building. These will include both short-term operational improvements and longer-term capital interventions, such as electrification, HVAC optimisation and renewable energy integration.

The outcome will be a clear, data-backed decarbonisation roadmap – providing clients with prioritised actions, investment insights and a stronger foundation for regulatory compliance and asset value enhancement.

Data is only one part of the equation. The transition to a low-carbon built environment also depends on access to cleaner energy sources. That is why we are currently progressing a partnership with 3T Power, Northern Ireland’s only supplier of 100% locally generated renewable electricity for business clients.

Through this partnership, with the support of Radius Energy, we aim to meet the electricity needs of our managed portfolio with genuinely local renewable energy. Notably, several of 3T Power’s wind farms have been financed through the Northern Ireland Investment Fund, managed by CBRE Capital Advisors on behalf of the Department of Finance and the Northern Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, something which demonstrates how aligned investment and delivery can accelerate the energy transition.

The focus now is on delivery. By combining robust data with practical interventions and strong partnerships, we are helping clients take clear, informed steps to reduce emissions and enhance asset performance.

For CBRE NI, sustainability is about making decisions today that deliver lasting value for tomorrow.