The Emergence of a More Responsible Real Estate Investment
These days, when the consequences of global warming raise many concerns and as we witness the advent of ecological thinking, 8 out of 10 French people say they are considerate of environmental problems, or even very sensitive to them. But few act when it comes to minimizing their impact. With responsible real estate, however, a new trend is emerging which offers everyone the opportunity to reduce their impact. Let’s find out more about the emergence of a more responsible real estate sector.
Each year the real estate sector is a source of numerous CO2 emissions. A house consumes energy, including hot water, summer air conditioning, winter heating… And those are only the items that consume the most energy. The real estate sector is facing the challenge of becoming eco-responsible by 2020. So what does it really mean?
Several property companies are working to improve their impact on the environment on their side but also encourages their customers to do the same.
There’s no doubt that companies are big producers of carbon dioxide. Simple measures can, however, be applied to limit those effects. Most real estate agencies are saving paper for example. Another approach is to switch towards LED bulbs.
3D Virtual tours are offered to limit car travel. Customers can discover and evaluate properties remotely, before they decide to move. Sextant is very proud to have been one of the pioneers of this measure. Digitization of documents and their online storage are also key dematerialization measures to reduce paper use. Towards this objective, Sextant created the program MySextant: all documents are available online.
The other initiatives valued as part of an eco-responsible strategy involve properties directly:
• Waste management and recycling.
• Heating (quickly switch off on leaving, do not abuse, etc.)
• Structural lighting (use low-consumption LED lights, etc.)
• Quit using printing papers, prefer digital.
It is also up to property companies to increase awareness by enhancing their consumers ‘ awareness of their carbon footprint and encouraging them to adopt the same methods … You can find out more about going green in your everyday life here.