Shanghai Landsea's Hongqiao Green Country

On August 26th and 27th 2020, the 16th International Conference on Green and Energy-efficient Building & New Technologies and Products Expo was held in the Suzhou International Expo Center.

The theme of this year’s forum highlighted the direction of travel in the built environment; improving the quality of buildings and moving towards an era of high-quality, sustainable architecture.

On the morning of the 27th, at the Landsea Group sub-forum, “Free Ark Built on Residential Greenness”, a range of key stakeholders gathered together to witness Shanghai Landsea’s Hongqiao Green Country become the first centralised residential building in the world to achieve the world’s BREEAM In-Use V6 residential project (Part 2) certification. This included government leaders from China’s real estate and property management industry, domestic and foreign authoritative experts in the field of green buildings and human settlements, mainstream media reporters and other professionals.

Since its creation in 2009, BREEAM In-Use has been used for thousands of assets in more than 30 countries to benchmark, improve and certify their sustainability performance and to showcase high standards of ESG performance.

With the launch of BREEAM In-Use: Residential V6 in May 2020, BREEAM further improved the comprehensive evaluation system, with a global vision and a leading scheme that prioritises green management, health and wellbeing, disaster prevention and resilience, and energy control of centralised residential buildings.

As a leading comprehensive green life service provider in China, Landsea has embraced the value of BREEAM In-Use (BIU) V6 to improve the green operation of the community. In line with this, Langshi Hognqiao Green Country in Shanghai took the lead in registering for an assessment, ultimately becoming the first residential project in China to achieve BIU V6 certification. Following the award, Landsea recognised that BIU V6 also serves as a powerful tool to improve and promote the green operation and sustainable development of the community, as well as enhance the operational efficiency of investors, owners, managers and users.

BREEAM schemes, especially BREEAM In-Use Version 6, help to empower the green management of centralized residential buildings and will hopefully add a new international dimension to the property management industry in China.

Gillian Charlesworth, CEO of BRE Group, congratulated Landsea on achieving the certification. She mentioned that since the global outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, people as end users of buildings now care more than ever about their indoor air quality, thermal comfort, hygiene, and resilience.

At an organizational level, BIU V6 also brings value in terms of global comparisons, increased efficiency and resilience, wellbeing and satisfaction, portfolio management, reduced operating costs and an alignment to best practice, as well as enhanced internal dialogue.

There is also external value for those who use BREEAM In-Use Version 6, including green bond compliance, alignment with GRESB reporting, stakeholder transparency, green premiums, non-financial reporting, accelerated recovery, and of course, great PR and marketing benefits.

With Landsea leading the way in China, BRE looks forward to working with them and seeing more of their projects achieve higher global benchmarks through the adoption of BREEAM In-Use V6 certification.

The Landsea Green Life Team said:

“The BREEAM In-Use V6 certification of Shanghai Landsea Hongqiao Green Country Project, symbolized that the project’s green operation concept is highly recognized by BRE and the industry. In 15 years of development, among the 150 projects Landsea manages, 79 centralised residential buildings have obtained China Three Star Green Building Certification, accounting for 52.67%. Among Chinese property management companies, Landsea Green Life is unique in its green management capabilities for centralized residential communities.”

“This certification is just the beginning for us. In the future, Landsea Green Life will dig deeper into BREEAM In-Use in comprehensively improving community management, operation and maintenance capabilities, and apply it in a wider range of projects, continuously enabling the green operation of centralised residential buildings, and striving to maximize the benefits of owners, investors, tenants and other stakeholders.”

The conference was co-sponsored by the China Society for Urban Studies, Jiangsu Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-rural Development, Green Building Council of CSUS, and the Eco-City Research Committee of CSUS.

This article was originally posted on the BRE website on 2 September 2020.

--BRE Group