SURE2050: supporting Flemish municipalities and public organisations in developing Strategic Real Estate Plans

In the Belgian region of Flanders, considerable efforts have been directed towards achieving the target of carbon-free buildings by 2050. However, there are still obstacles in place to effectively reduce the environmental impact of both the public and private building stock. For instance, in the public sector, real estate management is often only organised at an operation level and therefore limited to reactive decisions on building maintenance. In addition, long-term political goals for public real estate are not defined and the added value of a sustainable and socially responsible publicly owned real estate portfolio is not fully recognised.

The project SURE2050 – Sustainable Public Real Estate by 2050, supported by Horizon 2020 – identified these barriers and offered a tailor-made solution.

The main objective of the project was to develop and implement the Sustainable Public Real Estate Management (SPREM) in Flemish municipalities and public organisations. The project consortium brought together Flemish public and private organisations, led by Vlaams Energiebedrijf. The high demand of Flemish municipalities and public organisations in joining the project from the very start reflected the need and interest of the sector to adopt strategic real estate management to ensure informed investment decisions and the optimal use of public buildings.   

In total, 91 Flemish municipalities and 17 public organisations at the regional level benefitted from capacity building and individual coaching sessions to adopt sustainable real estate management and help them overcome one of the main existing barriers: limited staff resources.

Investments of more than EUR 28 million were channelled into 105 projects covering energy efficiency measures in buildings and renewable energy generation, which achieved emission savings of 4,034 tonnes of CO2 per year.

But the project impacts went far beyond energy efficiency measures. The project was also a trigger to discuss what the core functions of a public entity should be and how both the people in the organisation and the building stock play a key role in the ability to deliver these core functions, and transformed the awareness for the public building stock from a burden to a valuable asset.

Many of the project’s participants now act as ambassadors, who communicate the importance of strategic real estate plans to their peers, for example the City of Hasselt, the City of Bruges, the Province of West-Flanders or the Province of East-Flanders.

SURE2050 became a brand in Flanders with SPREM in place to last: Training material is available to all Flemish municipalities and public organisations through the SURE2050 learning platform (which is a cooperation with project BE-REEL); the energy data management is based on TERRA, which is the real estate database for public buildings in Flanders; and strategic real estate plans are now mandatory for Flemish public organisations. In addition, the Local Energy and Climate Pact for Flemish municipalities also values the importance of a strategic real estate plan for municipalities mentioning SURE2050 as best practice.

Link to website: www.sure2050.be

Link to film: SURE2050: duurzaam vastgoedbeheer in Vlaanderen - YouTube

Link to learning platform: http://www.be-reel.be/course/sure2050