Real Estate Has its First Green Building ETF. What Next?

Invesco launched a green exchanged traded fund after 77% of institutional investors planned to stop investing in non-ESG products by 2022. The ETF will track MSCI’s Global Green Building Index and pick stocks in companies that invest in buildings with high energy efficiency, a healthier indoor environmental quality, and environmentally friendlier construction materials. Around 75% of EU building stock is energy inefficient, so retrofitting existing assets is the foremost strategy. Other green investment vehicles have also emerged with VIA AM launching a carbon-neutral share class to compensate for the greenhouse emissions of their portfolio companies and Foresight Capital Management creating a Sustainable Real Estate Securities Fund. Finally, a Net Zero Asset Managers coalition now represents more than a third of all global assets under management with a pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.