Metrovacesa collaborates in the INDICATE Spain project to promote a unique carbon footprint calculation methodology in the sector.

• The project will develop a common database, accessible and open to the different actors in the industry, which will include close-to-reality scenarios and reference values and ranges.

• The public-private partnership of the initiative will accelerate the development of decarbonisation policies and facilitate the setting of carbon limits throughout the life cycle of buildings.

• Metrovacesa will provide relevant information to establish a unique calculation methodology that will quantify and establish the limits of emissions in order to reduce them in the future. In addition, it will contribute its experience as a benchmark in sustainable construction using the life cycle analysis (LCA) tool.

Madrid, 30 October 2023. Metrovacesa, Spain’s leading real estate developer with more than 100 years of history and more than 150 projects under development nationwide, is collaborating in the INDICATE Spain project, in which the governments of Spain, Ireland and the Czech Republic, as well as universities and agents from the sector in these countries are participating. The initiative, coordinated in Spain by Green Building Council España (GBCe) and the University of Seville, aims to address the lack of information on building in Spain and to make progress on sustainability in the Spanish real estate sector.

To this end, the project, which is supporting three European countries, will develop a common database, accessible and open to the different actors in the sector, which will include scenarios close to reality and reference values and ranges. As a collaborating real estate developer in INDICATE, Metrovacesa will provide key information to facilitate the quantification and reduction of carbon emissions in an efficient manner.

For this purpose, Metrovacesa provides the LCA of its residential buildings throughout Spain, which will serve as a representative sample of the entire Spanish real estate sector. These projects will include the main characteristics of Spanish buildings and will be used as a comparative basis for the theoretical archetypes with which they are currently working.

In addition to providing data, Metrovacesa will contribute its experience as a benchmark in sustainable construction with the use of the life cycle analysis (LCA) tool, which measures the environmental impact in all phases of a real estate project from the supply of materials to the dismantling of the building at the end of its useful life. In fact, the real estate developer, which is at the forefront of technology, has been analysing the life cycles of all its developments since 2021 thanks to its collaboration with Zero Consulting, with which it carries out all the carbon footprint analyses in more than 50 residential developments. In this way, it seeks solutions to improve the results from very early stages of the project. In addition, it has also implemented an optimal working methodology based on building modelling systems (BIM), which allows it to obtain immediate results and to propose scenarios with different construction solutions, thus seeking to optimise and reduce its impact on CO₂ emissions.

At the international level, the European Parliament establishes that by 2027 new buildings will have to report life cycle carbon and, from 2030 onwards, limitations will be implemented. In this sense, the information collected through INDICATE, and thanks to public-private collaboration, will accelerate the development of decarbonisation policies and facilitate the setting of carbon limits throughout the life cycle of buildings.

According to David Sierra Lluch, Director of Projects and Sustainability: “The real estate sector is currently experiencing a moment of transition towards a greener society. For this reason, pioneering projects such as INDICATE, which represent a breakthrough in sustainability for the construction sector and in which Metrovacesa is honoured to collaborate actively, contributing its experience as a leading developer in Spain, are gaining importance”.

Commitment to sustainable construction

Sustainability is one of the pillars on which Metrovacesa bases its business. Thus, the developer continues to advance in the development of a new housing model based on circularity. Therefore, Metrovacesa incorporates renewable energies, waste management, or generally prioritise materials with a high content of post-consumer secondary raw materials. As an example of this, recycled aluminium has been introduced in elements of the building, giving a second life to this material and promoting its circularity.

Metrovacesa is also committed to improving the sustainability of all its projects and going beyond current regulations, which is why it applies the VERDE Seal of Sustainability awarded by the prestigious organisation GBCe to its projects.