The future of revitalisation: “It’s all about the concrete”


Munich, 28 January 2021. Once the symbol for driving nature out of our cities, concrete may actually end up becoming the catalyst for a more sustainable future. The real estate industry in particular has a lot to learn about using existing resources better and more efficiently. There is a massive opportunity to reduce the environmental impact within the construction industry, which ranks fourth in terms of annual CO2 emissions after the energy, manufacturing and transport sectors. Brehme: “With everything we have learned during the pandemic and about climate change, maximising profit can no longer be our sole objective; more than ever, we now need to focus our efforts on saving the planet. The construction industry can play a key role in that transition, if it commits to using existing concrete. As architecture and consulting firm we are encouraging companies and real estate developers to make the most of the existing property stock through retrofitting and revitalisation. It’s all about concrete: We can leverage the grey energy hidden in the building materials of existing properties through resource-saving retrofitting. A lot of buildings just need a second chance!"

According to a study by Germany’s leading auditing and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), real estate investors are also starting to recognise the advantages of revitalisation. They are particularly concerned about the construction industry’s emissions, which are estimated to account for almost 40 per cent of the country’s total emissions, in addition to the higher price tag of new builds. As many as 68 per cent of real estate investors say they believe redevelopment is the best way forward. The statistics show how impactful retrofitting can be in both economic and ecological terms. By keeping a building’s basic structure, we can save around 40 per cent of the overall costs and as much as 80 to 90 per cent of the CO2 emissions. And this doesn’t count the future cost savings that come with retrofitting the building’s engineering, insulation and HVAC systems.

That is why we are calling on investors and asset owners to advocate for revitalisation of existing property complexes. Especially given the targets of last year’s Federal Climate Change Act, we need to increase the share of renovations from the current rate of around one to at least three, or better four per cent, if we want to achieve a noticeable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the construction industry.

Think global: The UN is showing us the way forward

Climate protection goals and the preservation of existing buildings go hand in hand – a well known fact which is also a central theme of the UN’s 2019 „Global Status Report for Building and Construction“. The UN recommends tearing down fewer buildings and to instead focus on preserving the existing building stock – a strategy that is already being implemented in several prominent projects around the world. „BUILD UPON2“, a pan-European project, for instance, wishes to kick-start a renovation revolution and demonstrate how existing buildings can be restored systematically.