The Region leads a strategy to make cities more sustainable and environmentally friendly

26/11/2019

The Region is leading the Sustainable Construction and Architecture Strategy (EACS), which aims to make cities more sustainable by promoting healthier and more environmentally friendly building and urban planning designs.

"The objective set by the Regional Government is to conduct more flexible urban planning, achieve recovery of urban spaces, and move towards a culture of sustainability in the building process", the General Director of Territory and Architecture, Jaime Pérez, said today, when chairing the meeting of the working group of the Sustainable Construction and Architecture Strategy (EACS).

This initiative forms part of the regional strategy on the circular economy, which the Region is promoting to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations 2030 Agenda.

This document will serve as a road map to encourage and promote the design of sustainable buildings through measures such as reducing the use of material resources, consumption of energy and water, waste and CO₂ emissions generated during the whole of the building process, as well as to promote the reuse and recycling of materials, intelligent maintenance of buildings, renovation and the efficient demolition or dismantling of buildings.

Furthermore, construction and demolition is one of the areas considered a priority in the European Action Plan for the circular economy, and it is vital to boost the market for secondary raw materials for construction, overcoming the uncertainty as to their quality by developing the corresponding regulations to ensure it.

"Through all of these measures, we will achieve more sustainable cities, where efficient land planning, urban regeneration and renaturalisation of spaces will be fundamental", stated Pérez Zulueta.

The document develops an analysis of the building process from a circularity perspective, covering five themes: the first four correspond to the phases established in the sustainability analysis methods for assessing the environmental performance of buildings: product, construction, use and end of life. The fifth category is cross-cutting, called Sustainable City, and includes aspects relating to the treatment of urban spaces and urban planning.

Technical Panel

The technical panel set up by the Regional Government aims to be a participative forum that gathers together all the key players in the sector, to debate the content of the strategic objectives and lines of action in the document and provide the necessary contributions and observations.

It is made up of the public administrations involved, professional bodies from the sector, universities, organisations from the scientific and technological community, expert professionals on the subject, as well as representatives from the business sector and users.

Photograph: Meeting of the technical panel of the Sustainable Construction and Architecture Strategy (EACS)