FIBRAs Mexico sustainable building certification, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): Mexico’s real estate investment trust industry, known as FIBRAs, has raised its governance and sustainability standards as climate change accelerates its effects. The country’s average warming has already reached 1.9°C, and projected physical risks demand an immediate response from productive sectors.
During the webinar “Climate Risk and Resilience in Decision-Making: FIBRAs United Toward a Sustainable World,” organized by the Mexican Association of Real Estate Trusts (AMEFIBRA), the sector disclosed that 42% of its Gross Leasable Area (GLA) now holds international sustainable building certifications such as LEED or EDGE. The GLA totals nearly 14 million square meters spread across more than 2,000 properties.
Opening the event, Jorge Ávalos Carpinteyro, president of AMEFIBRA and CEO of Fibra Mty, said the sector’s evolution reflects a deep conviction among operators and executives to protect their portfolios over the long term.
The data presented in the report show a 36% increase in the generation and use of renewable energy, along with a 10% reduction in water consumption across the sector. In addition, 40% of FIBRAs used sustainable financing instruments during the last cycle, for an amount close to 61,000 million pesos.
The report indicates that the ecological transition optimizes costs and provides certainty to the stock markets.
The urgency of this transformation was supported by Dr. Francisco Estrada, research coordinator for Climate Change at UNAM.
He warned during his presentation that cumulative economic losses from climate change in the country during the current six-year presidential term could equal 25% of gross domestic product (GDP), directly affecting large urban centers and industrial corridors. Given the outlook of more frequent extreme events and heat stress, he stressed that physical risk management and the adaptation of real estate infrastructure are already decisive for macroeconomic stability.
Institutional oversight by corporate governance bodies plays a key role in meeting these challenges. Marimar Torreblanca, CEO of Miranda ESG, emphasized that integrating ESG strategy into boards of directors is no longer a secondary compliance exercise, but a guiding axis of risk oversight, ensuring that climate materiality translates into effective financial and operational decisions.
Josefina Moisés, general director of AMEFIBRA, highlighted the accessibility and dynamism of these investment vehicles for the general public and institutional investors. With a tax framework requiring the distribution of at least 95% of taxable income to holders of Real Estate Trust Certificates (CBFIs), FIBRAs reaffirm their position as Mexico’s most transparent and liquid vehicle for addressing climate challenges of the 21st century, laying the groundwork for a low-emissions, highly resilient economy.
