Upgrade Estate: 5 ecological highlights of the past year

1. Heading towards 1,000 hectares of forest

We can barely keep track ourselves. In the meantime, we now have no fewer than seven forests in our portfolio in Finland and are approaching a total of 1,000 hectares of forest! Our goal of 2,500 hectares of self-managed forest is getting closer every day.

And there's more: our lime-green guru Jeroen officially joined our Management Team last year. As Chief Climate Action, he ensures that sustainability is given an even stronger voice within our company — as an independent theme with its own seat at the table where decisions are made.

2. Energy sharing = caring

2026 is set to be the year of green energy more than ever. This year, we're going all in on our energy management system. Energy what?! We're exploring how we can share the energy we generate ourselves, from our solar farms, across our entire property portfolio.

In Flanders, energy sharing is becoming increasingly accessible: companies with multiple locations can use surpluses from one site at another. We're applying that principle at scale. In doing so, we're taking major steps towards climate neutrality by 2035.

3. Don't waste our waste

The Upoffiz Coaches are currently hard at work on a waste awareness campaign at our Upoffiz Ghent campus – Loop5. Every month, tips are shared with the businesses on campus about how to handle their waste more effectively. How can you sort smarter? Where are the quick wins? And how do you turn waste reduction into a shared goal rather than an individual responsibility?

The goal: significantly reduce the residual waste mountain. And fun fact: if we reach our target by the end of the year, there will of course be a nice surprise in return. Stay tuned!

4. Sustainability Award for Bar Amelia

Sustainable entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry is no easy feat. Yet Bar Amelia proved it can be done — and how! In October, the team won the prestigious Gault&Millau Sustainability Award, recognising their commitment to sustainable and future-proof business practices.

All thanks to an interior made up of 80% non-virgin materials and a focus on collaborations with local heroes. Proof that sustainability doesn't have to come at the expense of atmosphere or quality. On the contrary, Bar Amelia's unique character is precisely the result of those circular choices.

5. Sustainably tiled

Our Look & Feel team transforms old materials into trendy eye-catchers every single day. And for them, 2026 is truly the year of the tile. No fewer than 10,296 tiles have been collected so far to create signage, decoration and coffee tables for our newest project, Do Upkot in Mons.

Not a single tile was newly manufactured for these unique designs. Every coffee table, every sign and every decorative element tells the story of a previous life and now gets a second chance in a brand-new student residence. Upcycling in its purest form.