Developers have a lot on their plate right now.
On top of tough market and financial conditions and the challenge to deliver more affordable housing there’s a lot of wants and expectations from consumers who are paying fortunes to move into trendy apartments.
Is there low cost, to no cost renewable energy? Is there EV charging? Will the quality of the building stand up?
It’s not an easy time to capture the attention of developers to expand their thinking into radical sustainability.
At a Waterloo lunch last week at trendy Dank Street co-founder of Eco Outdoor Ben Kerr attempted just that.
He gathered a room of developers, architects and other members of that eco system, for a panel discussion with a bunch of provocations, and brilliant fare prepared by chef Darren Robertson of Three Bue Ducks fame.
It worked.
But then this was Kerr’s milieu. His company supplies materials and finishes specified by architects to deliver high-quality products for developers, so you suspect he instinctively understands how to nudge clients toward better outcomes.
First up on the panel was one of the most exciting developers we’ve come across in recent times, Danish developer Rasmus Nørgaard of Home.Earth.
Significantly, Nørgaard has a deep background in private equity and funds management through Urban Partners, one of the biggest in Europe.
On stage too were architects Caroline Pidcock, fresh from moderating our own event Circular Disruption the day before and Adam Haddow, national president of the Australian Institute of Architects, along with Kerr.
Moderator was Vince Frost of famed design house Frost Collective.
Nørgaard had already told us in a chat before the formalities that his business doesn’t develop to net zero, it goes well beyond. Why? Because our planet has already breached the 1.5 degree warming so net zero is not enough.
He then told what could have been a slightly stunned audience that his company has achieved a development with the lowest carbon footprint for Denmark “so probably for Europe.”
In addition, the work came in at “normal cost” and within the affordable rental market.
Frost wanted to know how he’d arrived at such an ambitious strategy and business plan.
At the private equity firm, Nørgaard had also wanted to develop sustainably. But the five to seven-year horizon for such structures proved limiting. With a longer-term perspective, “you can go much further”.
“I think in private equity, it’s hard to really tackle affordability, from my perspective again, because of the short-term nature.”
So he decided to step out of that framework and develop Home.Earth.
Key to the company’s projects is that they are a rental proposition, to be held long term.
“If you’re a perfectly rational developer/contractor, with a two or three year perspective on a project, you’ll build the specifications that fit that time frame”. A long term owner may choose more durable materials that might cost more in the short term but less in the long run.
But right up front you need to design for a longer term perspective, because that’s when sustainable choices “become both easy and also financially worthwhile”.
This involves work towards a record low carbon footprint and visiting “every assumption throughout that supply chain that we go through.
“And I think that value chain is an important element, because it’s typically very fragmented, with different players and I think a lot of information gets lost through that process.”
So, all that work, asked Frost, “is it because you have to or because you want to?”
“No, I think we want to,” Nørgaard said.
“Right now, we are breaking seven out of nine planetary boundaries. So we’re living beyond our means.”
The question is how much carbon footprint can we allocate if we actually stay within the planetary boundaries?
Denmark says it’s one kilograms per two square metres per year, “which is not a lot.” The average development there has been around 10-12 kilos.
But planetary boundaries are also on a per capita basis, Nørgaard said, and in Denmark that’s 59 sq m per person, “pretty much the highest in Europe”.
“In Australia, you use 85 sq m on average. So you need to live smaller.”
“The nice thing about planetary boundaries is that it’s an absolute measure where certification is a relative measure.”
Nørgaard also said as a developer his company was privileged to be able to “develop in a city that provides a lot of infrastructure for what we do. We also need to contribute to using the fabric of the city and to the health of the city moving forward.
“Creating cities where there is room for everyone to live, I think, is essential. I don’t think it’s in anybody’s interest – not rich or poor – if only rich people can afford to live in the city.”
Caroline Pidcock reminded the audience of why Architects Declare had been formed – because “we’ve been talking sustainability for ages and it hasn’t worked”, she said.
Ping.
Pidcock mentioned systems thinker Donella Meadows, who says the biggest way of changing a system is through mindset.
(Listening to people like Rasmus Nørgaard is a clearly a good start.)
Good architecture was about lessening and reducing, and doing less damage, Pidcock said.
She also challenged the common refrain that Australia’s share of emissions was low. That’s not the case, she said, and besides, if we think of the Olympics, being a small country is never accepted by Australians as an excuse for poor performance. On the contrary, it’s always about “higher, faster, stronger together”.
She also noted work from China with its six zeros strategy for building materials that she’d heard about at Circular Disruption – zero purchased electricity, zero fossil fuels, zero primary resources, zero carbon emissions, zero waste, and zero staff (The Fifth Estate recommends stopping at five).
Adam Haddow picked up the theme of reduction with the example of his incredibly small house on a 30 square metre footprint and 68 sq m overall floor space.
The building has struck a nerve in Sydney, but what is not so easily seen is the change it’s made in his and his partner’s lives. You’ll think twice about buying a new jacket for instance because you don’t have the room for excess. And you will design a building so that every part of can be used.
He recommended a tax on anything beyond say 150 sq m, as a way to stimulate constraint and to earn a “social licence”.
Ben Kerr said incentives are also powerful stimulants.
“I think one of the things for me in that discussion is that we can be punitive or we can be inspirational.
“I’m interested that we inspire people; where there’s joy and quality and positive things, as opposed to restraint.”
Pidcock said that many people were averse to the idea of “living small”.
“No one wants to live small. People want to have the lives they have. And I think the size of the space … this is where really good design comes in, because you can make a small place feel really big.
“And it’s not just about your own place. You don’t have to own the places that you enjoy.”
Places such as the nearby Green Square have “unbelievable community facilities, including the roads and the parks and the other things that are community spaces that enable people to have big lives, but together.”