New funding won to help China create zero carbon developments

We are pleased to announce that BioRegional has just won funding from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office Global Prosperity Fund to help shape supportive policies for low and zero carbon community real estate projects in Chongqing, south west China.

Our Chongqing based team will work in partnership with Vanke, China’s largest real estate developer, to review existing institutional, technical and economic barriers to achieving two emissions reduction scenarios: net zero carbon (in line with the One Planet Common International Target) and a 45% reduction (in line with China’s 12^th Five Year Plan targets).

Having identified the barriers the team will then model what support mechanisms would be necessary to enable a real estate project to be commercially viable when meeting the emissions reduction targets. Evidence-based draft policies will then be developed with Chongqing Municipal Government and applied to three low carbon demonstration projects (including BioRegional’s planned Chongqing One Planet Community) in order for policy makers to assess practical feasibility. The findings will be publicly available in Spring 2012.

BioRegional developed the project in response to two existing barriers limiting the growth of low carbon communities in China’s rapid urbanization. Firstly, the perception amongst real estate developers and government that low carbon communities are commercially unviable; secondly, the absence of effective policies which support low carbon real estate development. The importance of sustainable urbanization for China is put into context by the scale of development, for example the urban population is estimated to expand by 350million by 2025 and 40 billion m² of new floor space will be constructed to accommodate this growth. By tackling these barriers we hope to accelerate the construction of low carbon communities in Chongqing.

Chinese language BioRegional website launched

BioRegional China website launched

To suport BioRegional and the One Planet initiative’s increasing presence in China, a Chinese-language website has been launched. An English translation is also available on the site.

www.bioregional.cn

China’s newest Special Economic Zone set to gain a One Planet Community

On September 9th BioRegional signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chongqing Municipal Government at the UN sponsored Annual China Economic Forum. The MoU is for the development of a One Planet Community on a 30 hectare site in the north of Chongqing, within China’s 5th and newest ‘Special Economic Zone’ (others are Shanghai Pudong, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Dalian). The project is also listed under the UK China Sustainable Cities MoU, updated in July 2010.

The team in China is currently working with RHS (a Chongqing based architectural and urban planning practice) to complete the concept planning stage. Once the concept has been approved by the Municipal Government a developer will be appointed and the detailed design process can begin. We will assemble an experienced design team able to present a solution that will enable One Planet Living; the team will comprise RHS, Chongqing University, AECOM (to lead engineering solutions) and UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture (critical design support).

We have lots of exciting ideas for the project, including a professional training centre for built environment professionals and academics that will link leading academic research from Universities in China, Europe and the US with professional best practice in China’s real estate sector.

News of the MoU has been greeted with considerable interest both in China and the UK, and has featured in a number of national and local television programmes and newspaper articles.

And if that wasn’t exciting enough – we are entering into negotiations with China Merchants Property Development with a view to endorsing the final phase of Jinshan ‘The Hills’ as China’s first One Planet Community. If the project progresses as planned, BioRegional will be working closely with the appointed design team at RMJM Architects to ensure the plans meet the Common International Targets.

For the next few months the team will be working with potential investors. If you are interested in learning more about the investment opportunities or participating in the project please contact Alastair McMahon (alastair.mcmahon@bioregional.com +86 136 583 111 45).