• Arcadis has entered a strategic partnership with Stok to expand sustainability, energy and high-performance building advisory services.
• The partnership targets data centers, real estate and asset-intensive sectors facing rising pressure over carbon, water, energy use and resilience.
• Clients will gain support from portfolio strategy through engineering, implementation and program delivery.

Arcadis Adds Specialist Depth in Asset Decarbonization

Arcadis is expanding its sustainability and asset advisory capabilities through a strategic partnership with Stok, a global team of sustainability and decarbonization experts.

The agreement adds Stok’s expertise in energy, high-performance buildings and portfolio decarbonization to Arcadis’ existing advisory, engineering and delivery services. The combined offer is aimed at clients that need to improve asset performance while managing carbon, energy, water and infrastructure risk.

The partnership comes as companies face growing pressure to turn climate targets into investment decisions. For data center operators, real estate owners and asset-heavy businesses, sustainability is no longer a reporting exercise. It now affects capital allocation, design choices, operating costs and long-term value.

Arcadis said the partnership has already shown early traction in data centers and real estate. The companies are working together on sustainability design guidelines for data centers and decarbonization strategies for real estate portfolios.

Data Centers Face a Harder Sustainability Test

Data centers are a central focus for the partnership. Demand for digital infrastructure continues to grow, yet the sector faces rising scrutiny over electricity use, water demand, grid pressure and embodied carbon.

Owners, developers and operators must deliver new capacity quickly. At the same time, they need to manage resilience, efficiency and climate performance. Those decisions often happen early in the design process, where technical choices can shape lifecycle emissions and operating costs for years.

Arcadis said the partnership is designed for markets where decarbonization and investment decisions are closely linked. The firm’s acquisition of KUA Group has further expanded its position in digital infrastructure. Stok adds specialist depth in sustainable building performance and program-level delivery.

Together, the companies plan to support clients from portfolio-level strategy through engineering and implementation. That includes helping organizations prioritize interventions, align climate goals with technical design and scale delivery across complex asset portfolios.

Climate Goals Move Into Capital Planning

The partnership also builds on Arcadis’ Integrated Sustainability & Compliance offering. This service helps clients address sustainability strategy, regulatory compliance and decarbonization planning.

For C-suite leaders, the key issue is execution. Many companies now have public climate goals, but they need practical pathways across assets, geographies and capital plans. Investors are also watching how sustainability commitments translate into risk management and asset value.

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Josh Nothwang, Global Solutions Director, Integrated Sustainability & Compliance, Arcadis, said: “What we’re seeing with clients is a shift from ambition to accountability. Decarbonization is no longer a parallel workstream – it’s shaping core decisions on capital allocation, asset performance and long-term risk. In energy and asset intensive sectors, we see this clearly in how projects are being designed and built, and how assets perform over time. Clients are making real trade-offs between speed to market, energy demand, cost and long-term value. The challenge is making those decisions consistently across complex portfolios. That’s where combining Stok’s specialist expertise with Arcadis’ capabilities makes a difference.”

His comments reflect a wider shift in corporate sustainability. Boards and executive teams are under pressure to connect climate targets with budgets, procurement, engineering decisions and regulatory exposure. That creates demand for advisers that can move beyond strategy and into delivery.

Portfolio Delivery Becomes the Competitive Edge

Stok’s role will be to bring deeper expertise in sustainability integration, especially across real estate and high-performance buildings. Its work with Arcadis will focus on helping clients move from ambition to repeatable outcomes.

Jacob Arlein, CEO, Stok, said: “Many of our clients have ambitious goals and need help translating those into consistent outcomes across their portfolios. That requires deep integration of sustainability across design, engineering and delivery. Particularly in data centers and real estate, where asset performance is tightly linked to energy and infrastructure, decisions made early carry through the entire lifecycle. Our partnership with Arcadis connects strategy with management and technical delivery at global scale.”

For investors and asset owners, the message is clear. Climate performance is becoming a factor in asset competitiveness, not only corporate reputation. Buildings and infrastructure that fail to manage energy, water and carbon risk may face higher costs and weaker long-term resilience.

Arcadis’ partnership with Stok reflects that market reality. It strengthens the company’s ability to serve clients across the full decarbonization lifecycle, from strategy to technical delivery. As global infrastructure demand grows, the companies are positioning sustainability as a core driver of asset performance and capital discipline.