EU TAXONOMY AND REAL ESTATE: HOW CAN WE OBJECTIVELY MEASURE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF A BUILDING OR PROJECT?

Compliance with the EU Taxonomy
During the last Provada back in October 2021, a developer approached Groenland. A German investor had asked the developer to demonstrate that a specific investment was, in fact, sustainable so he would know which fund to allocate the investment. The developer could not respond to that question. It took the combination of products and services offered by Drees & Sommer, EPEA, and Madaster to give him the necessary insight and argumentation to convince the investor. And that is precisely what these three companies do: show investors, developers, and manufacturers to what extent a project is or can become compliant with the EU Taxonomy and enable them to objectively determine for each building, neighborhood, area, and project what is sustainable and what is not. Madaster is a platform acting as a management tool in this process, says Managing Director Jeroen Broersma. “We provide an objective view of the actual situation of a building and enable someone to make the right decisions as early as the design phase, for example.”

Madaster: a registration platform and management tool at the same time
Broersma explains how it works: “Within Madaster – which can be described as the land register for materials – you can register the materials and products used in a building. Every building is a collection of all kinds of materials and products. By combining various data sources, the registration offers insight into, among other things, CO₂, circularity, toxicity, removability, and, last but not least, the residual financial value of a building's materials. The result is a transferable, digital building record. Moreover, it is not just a registration platform, but also a tool that allows you to monitor and manage the building throughout its entire lifecycle, based on validated data, both at building and portfolio level.”

EPEA, founder of Cradle to Cradle®
EPEA, a subsidiary of Drees & Sommer, provides the validated data and has extensive knowledge of building products and materials. The company uses Cradle to Cradle® and the circular economy as its guiding principles, says Vince Limpens, Real Estate Consultant at EPEA. “How are we currently managing our resources? We mine them first, which is a costly and time-consuming process. Then we use them for a relatively short time in, among other things, buildings. And then we burn them again. In my opinion, this is a textbook example of poor design and costly production. We believe in circularity: from molecule to building to metropolis and back to a molecule. A building with this kind of sustainable footprint offers additional value in many ways. Think of new revenue models through increased sales and rental prices. Additionally, consider the indirect benefits of a healthy work environment, such as lower absenteeism costs, as has been demonstrated by several studies. This is exactly how the EU Taxonomy works, i.e., it rates buildings on their positive, sustainable contribution to the future. Our data highlights the opportunities and possibilities regarding the materials used and their recycling potential.”