Xior’s sustainability report for 2025 sets out the student housing group’s ESG strategy, materiality assessment, targets and performance across environmental, social and governance themes. The report explains how Xior links its business model to the slogan “Housing the future means respecting the future”, with a focus on student wellbeing, energy-efficient buildings, employee development and ethical business conduct. It also details how the company mapped its material impacts, risks and opportunities to ESRS topics under the CSRD framework, even though it expects to fall outside the future scope of CSRD after the proposed Omnibus changes.

The double materiality assessment identifies eight key subtopics grouped around four pillars: happy students, efficient buildings, happy employees and a best-in-class organisation. Material themes include student safety, accessible housing, greenhouse gas emissions, climate adaptation, energy use, talent retention, training, corporate culture, business ethics and cyber risk. Xior also lists stakeholder expectations and commitments for students, staff, municipalities, suppliers, policymakers, local communities, educational institutions and investors.

On climate, Xior confirms its SBTi-validated pathway and ambition to reach net zero by 2050. The report explains a 2025 reclassification of student residence energy consumption from scopes 1 and 2 to scope 3, in line with CSRD/ESRS value-chain logic. For 2024 total emissions were 25,736.4 tCO2e, of which only 0.4% came from offices and vehicles, while the bulk came from student consumption and embodied carbon. Scope 1 and 2 emissions rose to 99.4 tCO2e in 2024, mainly due to company car growth, but Xior says electrification of the fleet from 2026 should reverse that trend. For operational scope 3 emissions, CO2 intensity fell from 32 kg CO2e/m2 in 2020 to 13 in 2024 and remained 13 in 2025, keeping the company broadly on track for its 2030 and 2050 targets.

The report highlights the company’s four climate levers: replacing gas heating with heat pumps or district heating where possible, deploying digital energy monitoring, integrating low-carbon design in new developments and renovations, and reducing emissions from offices and the vehicle fleet. Xior says it already uses 100% green electricity and expanded solar capacity by 34% to more than 2,311 kWp. At the same time, 2025 energy indicators show setbacks caused by colder weather and portfolio changes: like-for-like electricity use rose 5%, fuel use 11%, energy intensity 7% and like-for-like GHG emissions 9%.

On buildings and finance, Xior stresses that newer assets are more energy efficient than the existing portfolio and that it is improving quality through selective divestments and sustainable developments. The company reports 11 externally certified buildings and says 23% of portfolio fair value is externally certified. Its Sustainable Finance Framework covers green and social assets, with about €2.31 billion in eligible assets and €1.27 billion in sustainable financing, of which €993 million was drawn at year-end. Green assets show far lower carbon intensity than non-green assets.

The social section focuses on employee wellbeing, diversity, training and retention. Xior had 252 employees at the end of 2025, down 5% from 2024. The workforce was nearly gender balanced at 49% women and 51% men, with staff spread across Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Portugal, Germany and Sweden. Training averaged 8.4 hours per employee in 2025, up from 6.4 hours in 2024, while 47% of employees received a performance evaluation. Employee satisfaction reached 74%. The company also highlights the Xior Academy, mentoring, wellbeing programmes, onboarding and internal mobility as core HR tools.

For students, Xior reports 86% general satisfaction based on its annual survey. The report underlines residence managers, health and safety audits, Google review action plans, student apps, community-building through Baselife and Basebuddy, and local engagement as key measures to improve the resident experience. Health and safety incidents related to assets fell to 26 in 2025 from 32 a year earlier, while 65% of assets had a residence manager.

Governance disclosures cover board composition, conflict management and ethics-related action plans. Xior reports a board of seven members, including two executives and five independent or non-executive members, and states that all board members have expertise in environmental and social topics. The report also lists policies and actions on anti-bribery, whistleblowing, human rights, incident reporting, complaint handling, code of conduct training and cybersecurity.

Overall, the document presents Xior as a company trying to integrate sustainability into its operations, financing and governance while adapting to changing reporting rules. The core message is that climate performance, portfolio quality, employee development and student satisfaction are now treated as part of long-term value creation rather than as separate compliance exercises.