Energy efficiency and decarbonisation of homes: the pending task to fight against climate change

"It makes no sense to have an outstanding refrigerator in energy rating, in a home that fails in efficiency", evidenced

, Secretary General of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda at the forum on Sustainability and decarbonization in the real estate sector, held by Acciona and El Mundo on December 15.

This contradiction reveals how the old -and polluting- Spanish housing stock represents a stumbling block in the struggle for sustainability.

A pending task of great importance that the public administration and private companies intend to tackle in the cut-off time for the fight against climate change.

, CEO of the Real Estate Division,

vice president of the Sustainability and Architecture Association,

discussed this shared objective

.

Director of Sustainability & ESG of CBRE Spain and Carolina Roc

, vice president of Asprima, in a debate that was opened by Pardo de Vera and moderated by EL MUNDO journalist,

.

From the administration, the problem of sustainability in housing is perceived as one more gear in the urban transformation experienced by cities. In this way, a sustainable home will be sustainable as long as urban mobility or the city's energy consumption is also sustainable. The final objective would be, according to Pardo, to generate urban spaces "cleaner, more livable and friendly", since "sustainable housing is useless in a city that is not anchored to the same sustainability objectives."

To achieve this goal, the Government and the European Union have broken the piggy bank. In fact, from the private sector they have assured that the funds "are the only problem that there is not," said Luis Cabrera. According to the general secretary of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, the total investment in housing amounts to

, of which about

be allocated to residential rehabilitation and construction of social housing. To this will be added the ICO lines for the rehabilitation of homes, with a fund of up to

. This rehabilitation plan is the fundamental pillar of Spanish policy regarding the improvement of the sustainability of housing.

The government trusts to be up to par, and given the solvency and scale of the project, it trusts that the plan should be a success, "if all the agents that have to do with this align ourselves."

Pedagogy to raise awareness

"Our sector produces almost 30% of emissions without including construction. But we talk more about transportation, airplanes, energy and even cows before the real estate sector", analyzes Andrés Pan de Soraluce.

"Heating and cooling account for 56% of city emissions. What is happening is that the sector is affecting climate change, which is generating atmospheric processes that are affecting cities and consequently affect the sector itself. in a reciprocal effect ".

What goes wrong then?

Experts agree on the need to develop effective and pedagogical communication strategies that educate a sector "that is not only not prepared, but is not aware," as Pan de Soraluce has pointed out.

Andrés Pan de Soraluce, CEO of the Real Estate Division

But this awareness must also be extended to "absolutely confused" users, Manuel Fonseca describes.

The vice president of the Sustainability and Architecture Association also appeals to education from school as a tool for the population to integrate the values ​​of sustainability into their ways of life.

Since, as Cabrera emphasizes, users still do not have sustainability on their list of priorities when buying a home.

"For now, what is working best is word of mouth," says Fonseca. Especially when it is health that is put at the center. "When you explain to them that the famous molds won't come out with the rehabilitation, that's where you touch their chord," he says. Furthermore, Andrés Pan de Soraluce advises to emphasize the economic advantages of home renovation. "An efficient home reduces between

of energy and

. This is a saving for the user's pocket, but it also has an impact on the revaluation of the home", he confides. Nothing less than "between

of the value of the home", according to estimates by Luis Cabrera

It is about going "beyond" the sustainability certificates, turned into "mere procedures" for Fonseca and with standards "not particularly demanding" for Cabrera, who denounces that "They do not attack the

energy

, nor how those buildings behave in terms of carbon footprint emissions ".

Manuel Fonseca Gallego vice president of the Sustainability and Architecture Association

But awareness also requires communication of the opportunities that are being provided in this context of recovery.

This includes rehab grants that many homeowner communities ignore and are often slowed down by slow bureaucracy.

Also all the plans included in the 2022-2025 Housing Plan.

"Opportunities that if we do not take advantage, will pass" warns Pardo de Vera.

Recover productive fabric and qualified workforce

In the eyes of Carolina Roca, vice president of Asprima, there are three challenges that hinder achieving sustainability objectives in the real estate market.

On the one hand, the subsidies not collected by a bureaucracy that, as the secretary general of MITMA herself recognizes, sometimes "becomes impossible."

For this, Roca proposes alliances with banks that generate "bridge financing" to speed up the processing of these funds and that the subsidies arrive on time, thus preventing the neighbors from being demotivated.

Second, the need to create a "rehabilitation agent" that opens a "new line of business and makes a turnkey for rehabilitation".

Carolina Roca, Vice President of Asprima

Behind these objectives, lies the greatest challenge: "recovering the productive fabric of construction." An open wound since the 2008 real estate bubble burst in which "construction companies were the weakest link," Roca identifies. This has generated a "lack of manpower to undertake the projects that are demanded in the future." And that, as the director of operations of CBRE Design Hub points out, "requires a professional specialization".

"Those who really have the necessary training and care are those small subcontractors that all large companies or industrialists hire," adds Carolina Roca. The same ones that did not survive 2008 and that are now necessary to face the challenge of sustainability. The few that survived after that financial tsunami "have no intention of growing," Roca warns. "They do not trust the sustainability of the sector, no matter how much we tell them that 300,000 homes have to be rehabilitated in Spain."

For this reason, "part of the solution is to protect the construction SMEs, so that they become the foundations of this productive fabric and work again".

Otherwise, industry experts predict that the problem will worsen as soon as retirements do not have a replacement for young people.

Youth housing access

On the table of the debate held last Wednesday was also access to housing for young Spaniards.

A recurring problem in which all the agents present there highlighted the role played by youth unemployment.

For Luis Cabrera the options are clear: "either we increase their purchasing power or we reduce house prices. One of two."

Luis Cabrera, COO of CBRE Design Hub

For her part, the vice president of Asprima criticizes that "for 10 years we have not had housing policies in Spain." It differentiates the housing needs of the most disadvantaged incomes from those of young people and middle incomes who, while working, cannot access a home at market prices. A

, according to

their estimates. To this broad segment of the population, Roca determines, social housing or protected housing should be dedicated.

However, since the bubble burst, "no autonomous community has been able to meet the objectives of protected housing."

And he emphasizes that it is a question that escapes the political color of the day.

"Last year Andalusia did not qualify any protected dwelling. In Madrid something similar happens. We did not reach 5,000 in the entire national territory", denounces Carolina Roca.

And he concludes: "you cannot eradicate a housing policy management system that has worked without having a plan B."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

See links of interest

• Last News

• 2022 business calendar

• Home THE WORLD today

• Holidays 2021

• Podcast Economia

• How to do

• Fenerbahce Istanbul - Bitci Baskonia

• Amorebieta - Almeria

• Talavera de la Reina - Real Betis

• Arenteiro - Valencia CF

• Llanera - Mallorca