The pandemic has challenged industries to confront the inevitable, climate change and social unrest for human equality. Companies have come forward to discuss a restructure in their organizations and set initiatives to include a more diverse workforce and/or benchmark of their carbon emissions reduction. However, companies have failed to collectively discuss a reorganization in their business models and to consider a circular economy or cradle-to-cradle approach to business. In commercial real estate, small movements have taken place to integrate the circular economy (CE) approach to business, including the switch to renewable energy in lighting and HVAC. Furthermore, investments are lacking today due to the misconception of high costs, which is refuted by Forbes. Tushar Mittal, Founder & Managing Director at SKV, recommends we continue to invest in renewables and includes 3 additional steps to embrace change: Design A Circular Office, Reduce Waste Landfill and Reuse What You Can. These measures range from readapting the building’s core to serving a versatile function to disrupt the supply chain of materials. The hope is for our industry to design buildings to be more of a material bank – where both construction material and interiors can be recycled, repurposed, leased and otherwise kept out of landfill.
Discussion Question: What other strategies can we push forward in real estate to adapt a circular economy (CE) model and commit to the ethical valuation of our planet?
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