Sustainability as an objective in the real estate sector

Over the past 20 years, the sustainability has been a topic that has been on the lips of most experts in all sectors of the economy, and how could it be otherwise, the real estate sector must also be reinvented to adapt to the current new climate paradigm.

The Spaniards position the sustainability In the real estate sector as the main objective to accelerate, from a social point of view, the fight against the climate crisis. In fact, this has been confirmed in the document submitted by A.Citizens' Climate Assembly (ACC) to the Government of Spain, which contains 172 suggestions divided into five different areas: food and land use, work, consumption, ecosystems and community, health and care.

This Assembly, which originated in January 2020 as a forum for citizen participation, seeks citizens to reflect and generate consensus on the major changes that Spain needs to achieve climate neutrality before 2050. “The work in this forum to achieve a more resilient, just and supportive country in the face of the climate emergency is very valuable and sends a clear message that the responsibility for decarbonization lies with everyone,” says Dolores Huerta, director general of Green Building Council Spain (GBCe)

In this regard, Huerta referred to the Roadmap for the decarbonization total construction in Spain, in which public administrations are asked to place citizens at the center, which involves activating individual and social responsibility. In this way, they are intended to promote lifestyles opposed to carbonization: “The transition from building to sustainability is inseparable from citizen participation, so practices of participatory democracy such as this Assembly, which allow citizens to listen to, must be the usual path to follow,” said Huerta.

The challenge of the real estate sector

In the current scenario of climate emergency, where a change in the way of life cannot be sustained, decarbonizing the economy is the main challenge facing the future. The real estate sector is responsible, at European level, for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions derived from buildings.

Taking this fact into account, the CC proposes “to promote green, sustainable architecture and to make it easier for the park of buildings - both new and existing - to adapt quickly and easily to the best existing standards of energy and water consumption”.

To be honest, this is a big challenge, considering the amount of energy consumption mentioned above. It's no surprise then that of the There are 4.5 million properties with Energy Efficiency Certification in Spain, only 13,000 of them have the letter A (maximum certification). To this must be added the fact that half of the park built in Spain was built prior to 1980, without any type of regulation that would promote energy efficiency.

Deep transformation of the sector

“Half of the expected carbon emissions for the building sector are hidden, so if we want our buildings to generate zero emissions by 2050, a vision of life cycle analysis is essential for the entire sector,” argues the director general of GBCe. In view of this, the Assembly asks to “promote the use of sustainable practices and materials in buildings”, with sustainable procedures such as the recovery of materials and ensuring that new buildings are better adapted to the climate crisis.

In this scenario of profound change in the real estate sector, Justo Orgaz, president of GBCe, concludes that the adaptation to the regulations is progressing with determination, but with a slowed pace, towards reducing the environmental impact. Because of this, Orgaz sees certification tools as the guide to anticipate the changes that will be experienced in the real estate sector.

“Promoting, designing, manufacturing, constructing and maintaining buildings following certification criteria such as DGNB is a guarantee of future value, since certification is an anticipation of the regulatory and practical context”, highlights Orgaz.

Conclusion

If one thing is clear, it is that to build a project as large as Reental it is important to do it from the right bases and in line with the needs of the general population, including, as we have seen, sustainability.

From Reental we work hard every day to offer, not only tokenized properties with good profitability, but also to offer some sustainable real estate, that are as closely as possible in line with best practices in this field.

If you have any questions about the sustainability of Reental's buildings don't hesitate to ask our support team, we'll be happy to answer you.

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