Could Real Estate be sustainable and impact positively our environment and communities?

Following my first article last week, this brainstorming is related to sustainable investment in real estate.

We all know real estate is necessary for every people in this planet, because we all deserve to get proper living conditions, we all deserve a home to live in to grow our families.

Unfortunately this is not the case everywhere in this planet, and we need to find a way to make it happen in the following decades. But this will be another topic of future article.

My point come from my actual stay in China, but also years of travelling across Europe and Mexico. When you actually see all development in different countries, you cannot NOT ask yourself we are keeping to gain parcels of construction building on our mother land, we are keeping taking advantage of our planet, by building construction, without taking enough consideration of the environment and giving back to her.

We also know that construction in real estate is one of the industry that can contaminate the most our environment, especially with the concrete industry, which consume immense quantity of water and energy, and especially because we don’t recycle so much all the material when we destroy old buildings.

Furthermore, the type of construction we are doing, are not enough taking into consideration the global carbon footprint of our construction.

But in my point of view, what is worst, is seeing some construction that change the entire environment to full block of concrete not taking into consideration the long term impact of not having green areas there, with growing temperature of the area, obliging to put more AC, and finally being in a negative circle.

So you might tell me there will be less profitability on the project if we don’t take advantage of all the superficies of the land. This is certainly true, but after we might also consider the long term green profitability / green line of a financial report.

If you have more green areas, covering the concrete, or protecting the walls, you will not have a growth of the temperature of the building, and you will consume less electricity to cool up the different areas with AC. Even if we can use solar energy for the AC, the best saved energy is the one we are not using!!!

You will also give way better areas for people to better coexist, enjoying outdoor activities, filtering better the carbon to transform into oxygen (hashtag#photosyntesis).

Studying this industry since some years now, because of personal passion, I really think there are many ways to have a bigger visions on all projects, that should be supported by global urbanism perspective.

To enhance our green and positive impact in construction, I firmly believe we should take into consideration every aspect of the project with a long term objective of positive impact on the planet and people.

We have for instance different solutions:

Replace concrete:

Wood

  • Better carbon footprint, but the life cycle is quite long (between 30/40 years)

Bamboo

  • Extremely fast to grow, and probably the best material in some regions, but also with some insulation inside panels
  • Go check: Bamcore for the solutions: https://www.bamcore.com/

Vegetized walls

  • We could definitely insulate better our outside walls with those solutions, bringing also more green area in every big buildings, and decreasing the contamination of day to day, filtering better the air in common areas

Recuperation and treatment of rain water,

  • To have the possibility to reuse it at home, for showering, for domestic use, for watering the plants, garden and vegetized walls

Usage of solar / geothermic energy

  • Should be an obligation in every new construction building/house

Recycling all the demolition material on new construction site

So there are solutions, but what should also be considered is related to big urbanism projects, it should not be allowed to build for more than a certain surface on a plot/land, and obliged to keep green areas, not build of concrete.

I am referring specially to big new areas in cities and suburbs, or the big warehouse outside of city suburbs. All those development should have had obligation to get a positive carbon footprint impact. For new and old ones.

This is an absolute necessity for our planet, and would also bring a lot of new business opportunities for companies who could propose those solutions.

I am sure I will also hear some voices, telling we should stop building any construction, and stop develop ourselves. I hear that, and understand your point of views. I also think we have the possibility to merge our objectives, keep developing our homes and civilization, but from the very beginning thinking how those constructions will have a positive impact, and lead to a new housing world for the future.

I would really love to hear some comments about sustainable development, and how people would feel to live in those areas vs fully concrete buildings/areas. Implying also higher cost to buy/rent. What are your perception of actual urbanism rules, and if you would appreciate some transformation where you live?

Housing and living is one our primary needs, so would love to hear from our community!!!