Circular Economy Real Estate
C
The main aim of our Circular Economy Real Estate Division is to transfer the principles of a circular economy into normal built environment practices.
First of all, our vision includes a circular built environment identifying key strengths and opportunities for implementing circular economy practices., by proposals able to lean the change.
Our Circular Economy Real Estate Division faces the built environment sector needing to be more sustainable also by adaptable environmental ethical cases. Our start points concern the fact that business’ customers more and more prefer to act in an environmentally and socially responsible way. What benefits of this?
Making the investment case is vital to turbocharging the adoption of circular economy principles, helping the sector tackle its environmental footprint and create better places for people to live and work. So too is practicality. What tangible changes could real estate investors and businesses make to tap into these benefits? With these questions in mind, we welcome both the findings of our research and the future cross-collaboration that can support our work. We are pleased that our society has been able to help develop the circular economy real estate business in this event.
Our research, first of all, demonstrates that circular economy practices can be put into existing real estate business models. That shows the benefits of doing so, both in creating new value from an asset than keeping an asset at its optimal value; and also in eliminating waste.
At their core, our business models developed support for optimal use of resources by a real estate assessment life cycle, and not only at the design stage.
Then, the aim is to demonstrate the value and process of implementing circular economy principles in the built environment to real estate investors and construction clients. Is important also to focus on the right stakeholders as they are best placed to lead the transition to a circular built environment, since they have the greatest capacity to influence decision-making, set direction, and catalyze action throughout the value chain. Policymakers were also identified as possible first movers, as they made it clear the needing an evidence base of the benefits of a circular economy to be developed by investors and construction clients.
In fact, the value - and the way in which it is created from real estate assets - is set by investors and construction clients through investment requirements, tenure models, and design briefs (developed within the "environment" of the policy environment in which they operate). Despite this, the business case for implementing circular economy principles has not yet been explicitly articulated to investors or construction clients to incentivize a change in this direction. The aim of this project is, therefore, to signpost the business case.
This means that we are in the right placed to realize good circular economy practices. The importance of investors’ risk perception and their "hunger", as well as their comprehension of asset financings, has to be valorized as the successful use of circular economy practices will be strongly dependent on the buy-in of investors. In fact, our profession allows us (and ask us) to be engaged at every stage of an asset’s lifespan.
The construction of the building investors’ trust is related to valuation standards; that has to be applied in a trusted professional way, with aid transparency giving investors confidence in the underlying valuation. For us, this will require adaptation to circular economy practices and techniques: this will lead to wider adoption of new tools.
