Now in its fifth year, the Index tracks the evolution of the European building stock’s energy consumption and carbon emissions across six major markets as well as covering six regions and three building typologies in the United States.
Since 2021, the Deepki Index has tracked the real energy consumption of tens of thousands of European buildings. Average final energy consumption across all typologies rose from 156 kWh/m² in 2021 to 165 kWh/m² in 2025, a net increase of 5 percent over five years, despite the introduction of the EU Taxonomy, SFDR and CSRD over the same period.
Carbon emissions tell a more encouraging story on the surface: down 7 percent since 2021, with most of that decline, 16 percent, concentrated in the last two years alone. However, the Index shows that average carbon intensity in Europe fell nearly three times faster than energy consumption over the same period, 12 percent versus 4.5 percent between 2023 and 2025. The clear majority of the sector’s apparent carbon progress is attributable to a cleaner grid, not to better-performing buildings.
The United Kingdom remains the most energy-intensive major European market in the 2026 Deepki Index, averaging 205 kWh/m²/year across all typologies, the highest of the six countries covered. On carbon, however, the UK’s position is more middling: its grid’s carbon intensity (0.165 kgCO2/kWh) sits below Germany, Italy and Benelux, meaning the UK’s real estate sector cannot rely on a particularly clean grid to offset its high consumption. For UK asset managers, the Index’s findings reinforce the case for prioritising efficiency measures directly, rather than assuming decarbonisation of the National Grid will close the gap on its own.
The 2026 Index reveals a similar pattern on the other side of the Atlantic, with an even starker carbon effect. The average US office consumes 26 percent more energy than its European counterpart but emits 94 percent more CO2. Across the three building types common to both regions (residential, logistics and offices), the energy gap between Europe and the United States ranges from -10 percent to +26 percent, while the carbon gap is consistently far wider, from 42 percent to 94 percent. The local electricity mix, not the underlying efficiency of buildings, remains the dominant driver of this gap.
“Grid improvements have given us a head start on carbon, but they won't carry us to a sustainable future” said Vincent Bryant, CEO and co-founder of Deepki. “Our industry has to step up and do the heavy lifting on actual energy use and electrification. We cannot afford to wait. Decarbonising real estate isn't just a responsibility; it is the ultimate opportunity to unlock hidden value and future-proof portfolios.”
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