Canadian pension fund Ivanhoé Cambridge has teamed up with the former chief executive of Unibail Rodamco to invest €1.6B in low-carbon office buildings, in one of the biggest sustainable real estate ventures anywhere in the world to date.

Ivanhoé is the cornerstone investor in a new fund called ICAWOOD, which will be managed by Guillaume Poitrinal’s company ICAMAP. ICAWOOD has raised €750M of equity from a total of 13 investors. With debt it will have €1.6B to spend.

The fund will develop new low-carbon buildings in Paris, with the aim of building a portfolio of 2M to 3M SF by 2028. The offices will implement building technologies developed by Woodeum Group subsidiary WO2.

ICAMAP was set up by Poitrinal alongside former JP Morgan analyst Harm Meijer and hedge fund investor Alexandre Aquien in 2013 and raised €500M for its first fund. Under Poitrinal’s tenure, Unibail grew to become the biggest listed property company in Europe and one of the world’s largest shopping centre owners. ICAMAP’s investments include a stake in shopping centre owner Capital & Regional.

”Woodeum has developed high-performance environmental and thermal technologies and construction processes, using cross-laminated timber,” Ivanhoé Head of Europe Karim Habra said. “This constitutes a major advantage in building innovative office space that meets the needs of the most demanding users.”