Sustainability Report 2024
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19 November 2024
The RICS Sustainability Report 2024 uncovers trends and sentiment of 4,000 built and natural environment professionals in 32 countries across the world. In a sector that accounts for almost 40% of global carbon emissions, tracking attitudes towards sustainable practices helps foretell the rate of decarbonisation and identify real-world barriers to progress.
This year’s report suggests that the global built environment sector is making progress towards adopting a sustainability-centric approach within the commercial property and construction sector. However, there is much room for improvement. The report shines a spotlight on the lack of understanding and action around embodied carbon, a green skills gap, prohibitive costs, and the low prioritisation of biodiversity considerations. These are all challenges the sector will need to address in order to meet global targets.
Download this year’s report and infographic to find out more about sentiment by region, what is driving progress, and the factors holding us back.
Downloads
Published date: 13 November 2024
“At our current pace, we won’t meet net zero targets. We need credible policy interventions to shape real estate and construction practices”
Tina Paillet
President, RICS
Key findings from the report:
Is the global built and natural environment sector making progress on sustainability? We surveyed 4,000 RICS members in 32 countries, and they told us:
Demand for green buildings keeps rising
Interest in sustainable built assets among investors and occupiers has risen for the fourth consecutive year.
+63% Europe
+54% UK
+49% Middle East and Africa
+38% Asia Pacific
+25% Americas
+41% Global
Policy matters
Interest in sustainable buildings is at its highest in Europe, where regulation and standards around green practices are most comprehensive.
52% of respondents believe this to have a high impact on trends and practices.
Perceived value and demand is driving investment
50% of professionals believe that green buildings have a higher capital value.
Cost and skills shortages are holding us back
The biggest challenges to adopting sustainable construction practices, according to surveyors worldwide, are:
High initial cost
Skills, knowledge and training shortages
Cultural issues, established practices, and lack of awareness
The sector is unprepared for disaster
Extreme weather events threaten:
Human life
Livelihoods
Infrastructure
Buildings
Capital costs
Insurance premiums
But resilience of buildings is essential or very important to only a quarter of occupiers and 30% of investors.
We must embrace carbon measurement
We asked respondents if they measure embodied carbon emissions on their projects and, if so, how significantly it affects their choice of materials, systems and components.
34% We do not measure
24% We do measure, but it doesn’t affect our choices
21% We do measure, and it significantly affects our choices
22% We’d like to measure if there was a standard approach to doing so
Complacency on biodiversity
We’re facing rapid decline in species loss, but in a fifth of projects globally, biodiversity is not considered at all. Respondents told us how often they consider biodiversity in their projects:
20%: On 100% of projects
27%: On more than 50% of projects
39%: On less than 50% of projects
14%: Not on any projects
Where do we go from here?
RICS recommends a number of high-level policy measures to drive decarbonisation and increase resilience of the built environment to climate impacts. Find out more at our sustainability hub.
