Client Case
Stone Capital
OASIS Project
CASE STUDY
Stone Capital is a real estate developer based in Portugal, founded in 2010, and has been an important player in the rehabilitation of Lisbon’s historic areas. With over 1500 apartments delivered and numerous assets under development, Stone has expanded into other initiatives and different types of projects, such as schools, office buildings and retail parks.
Recognizing the global environmental footprint of the industry and the growing concern among Stone’s stakeholders regarding climate change and our changing planet, the real estate developer, together with Impact Labs, is leading its first-ever sustainability strategy at group and project-level. Leveraging the expertise of Impact Labs and drawing inspiration from green building certificates, Stone aims to implement construction best practices that prioritize environmental stewardship and allow the quantified reduction of its ecological impact, from Carbon to Water and Biodiversity.
Industry
Real Estate
Clients
Mostly individual home buyers, government entities, private businesses
Location
Portugal
Sustainability Engineering & Business Model Transformation: Sustainability Strategy at Project Level
For this project, which consists of constructing a retail park and an affordable housing building, we aimed to tackle sustainability challenges in construction and retail businesses. In both, sustainability poses significant challenges, such as resource consumption, waste management, and environmental impact reduction. To overcome those challenges, Impact Labs, together with Stone, translated a typical sustainability strategy, usually done at the company level, to the project level, with long term goal to provide full autonomy for the project managers to replicate to all projects.
This involved a comprehensive sustainability strategy process to guide the conceptualization and vision of this project. This process included several key components: first, we conducted a materiality analysis to identify critical sustainability topics relevant to construction and retail businesses. Additionally, we developed an Environmental Impact Framework specifically tailored to the retail sector, allowing us to understand and address its unique challenges and opportunities. Utilizing benchmarking and market studies, we gained insights into industry best practices and market trends. Finally, we translated Stone’s sustainability vision into strategic marketing and communication pieces, ensuring alignment between the company’s sustainability objectives and stakeholders’ expectations.
Finally, Impact Labs supported in converting the sustainability goals of the project into communication pieces to engage key stakeholders, through the creation of guidelines for retailer selection, B2B guidelines for retailer operations and B2C consumer branding and education initiatives. All of these initiatives are core to the creation of an Impact Report that aims to communicate effectively with all stakeholders.
Eco-systemic Innovation: Sourcing of key innovative solutions and Partners to achieve Sustainability targets
At Impact Labs, we are dedicated to sourcing the most adapted and groundbreaking technologies that not only align with our sustainability objectives but also resonate with our clients’ needs. A cornerstone of our approach lies in The Digital4Impact Tech Radar, a dynamic map meticulously curated to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of digital technologies driving sustainability forward.
In the real estate sector, digital tools play a pivotal role in revolutionizing traditional practices. Construction cost management tools and Building Information Modeling (BIM) software are transformative aids empowering architects, engineers, and project managers that support the optimization of building designs and streamlining construction processes.
Moreover, due to the complexity of construction projects and the diverse expertise required, Impact Labs actively seeks out strategic partners. A specialized company in Zero-Energy Buildings (nZeb), is providing valuable insights into the buildings’ environmental life cycle impact and cost considerations, significantly contributing to the project’s sustainability performance. Working with specialized companies can support real estate developers in building more nature-positive cities.
Development of sustainable real estate leveraging low-carbon construction and architecture, and digital tools
This project aims at being an example of best practice in sustainable real estate development. With the guidance of BREEAM Certification and external sustainability expert partners covering the whole real estate value chain, the project reduces its ecological impact while maximizing long-term ROI. Through collaboration with partners, such as Dosta Tec with expertise on low-carbon construction & architecture and leveraging digital tools, the projects seeks to translate sustainability into the user experience, contributing to more nature-positive cities.
PURPOSE
PEOPLE
PLANET
Profit
Benchmarking study, creation of an environmental impact framework and Strategic Marketing & Communication pieces
Sourcing of key high & low tech innovative solutions and Partners to achieve sustainability targets
Support in BREEAM’s certification strategy process and achievement