C40 Cities convened city officials, industry leaders, unions, and academic experts in Madrid recently as part of the VISIBLE project, aimed at empowering European cities to drive the transition of their construction sectors.
A city of 3.3 million people, with an active focus on its built environment future, Madrid’s leadership is prioritising several key areas in its transition to sustainable construction, creating pathways for decarbonisation that build in benefits for workers, residents and the market. They include:
- Supporting innovation in building methods and materials;
- Strategically designed procurement processes to unlock faster delivery;
- Training programmes to support a diversified workforce and give opportunities to new entrants;
- Progressive city-scale housing and regeneration policies.
Its administration’s ‘cross-departmental’ approach brings together housing, climate, and procurement and governance teams to give sustainability, social equity, and economic viability equal consideration in construction policy development.
Juan Azcarate Luxan, Deputy Director, Energy & Climate Change, said, “We have a combined vision made up of different perspectives of departments… and we are all learning a lot from the VISIBLE programme on layering equity into all aspects”.
Guided by its 2022 Climate Roadmap – an ambitious, live document containing 21 indicators by which it tracks emissions reduction and other sustainability metrics – Madrid aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% (compared to 1990 levels) by 2030, ultimately targeting carbon neutrality by 2050. It’s already integrating a social perspective, collaborating with the Polytechnic University of Madrid to assess the impacts on residents and workers of its climate actions.
Perhaps the most pressing issue for Madrid, as for many cities across Europe, is the need for affordable housing. The city is facing a significant challenge: over half of its buildings were constructed before 1981, and many need renovation to meet living standards, and the population is growing. According to Mayor of Madrid José Luis Martínez-Almeida, this is an issue uniting city leaders: “When international mayors come together, housing – especially affordable housing – is the topic that comes up first. I believe that Madrid will advance only with social cohesion – this means that wherever you live in the city you need to have the same opportunities and quality of public space.”
The city’s strategic regeneration and renovation plan, Plan Regenera Madrid, has prioritised 164 areas with buildings from the years 1950-1980 to become the first “Healthy Neighbourhoods”, working three themes: accessible and safe, green and sustainable, and inclusive and integrated. There’s a project ‘dashboard’ to share progress with residents.
On the new-build front, Madrid’s municipal social housing company, EMVS, wants to grow its portfolio by 6,000 homes in the next three years. “We have more than 40,000 applicants for social housing every year – so we are proactively working on new ideas!” says Agustín Arroyo, Director of Retrofit and New Construction, Madrid Social Housing Agency (EMVS).
Madrid’s clean construction shift: Key learnings
Piloting ways to deliver low-carbon housing, faster
In a city needing at least 30,000 new social homes a year, Madrid’s leadership is focused on how its construction policies and processes can both incentivise sustainable material use and allow new housing – including affordable and student homes – to be delivered faster. Two pilots have shown the results of thinking creatively about the end-to-end development process, with a focus on typical blockers for sustainability and speed.
Iberia Loreto 01, a lighthouse project for the city’s municipal social housing department EMVS, will deliver 52 affordable homes for rent. It will take only two years to build, shaving a year (40%) off the traditional-build timeline, thanks to its material choices and the way the city set up the development process. Rethinking the typical sequence of procurement, then contracting, then permits, the EMVS set these stages to work concurrently through Design-Build contracting. When it came to finding a design solution, EMVS weighted the bid in favour of speed, thereby incentivising industrialisation and making mass timber the logical choice – tackling build times and carbon emissions, and contributing to the city’s housing and climate goals.
“Using timber allows us to be very precise, with low tolerances, and therefore we can order components ahead of the usual time with confidence, making progress faster,” said Javier Gómez Redondo, Jefe de Departamento de Soporte e Innovación, Dirección de Rehabilitación y Obra Nueva (Head of Innovation Department, Retrofit and New Development).
As the city’s largest CLT project (on an 8,000sq m plot) and a 2019 C40 Cities Reinventing Cities project winner, the Campus for Living Cities (under construction on the South Campus of Madrid’s Polytechnic University), shows other ways the city’s administration is supporting building innovation. The location is the city’s second designated “360 Demo Area”, complying with the framework of the EU’s “100 Climate-Neutral Cities 2030” Mission. Its largest building will provide a 342-room student residence constructed almost entirely from Austrian engineered timber – a material chosen for the location’s climate ambition, speed of assembly, and the sustainability ambition of its developer, UNEXUM. Its CEO, Margarita Chiclana Actis, pointed out the speed of delivery timber has enabled, and the collaboration its use has promoted between the developer, the supply chain and the city.
The city as a convenor – encouraging collaboration with the construction industry and finance actors
Madrid is keenly aware of the importance the construction sector plays in its economy and the lives of many of its citizens – and so is focusing on facilitating and intensifying collaboration between the construction businesses, finance institutions and administration departments. Through VISIBLE, it is holding dialogues with market representatives to unpack barriers and bottlenecks to industry involvement in a clean construction shift, build an understanding of the factors impacting economic viability, and discuss the city’s role in helping create market transition.
What can cities do to accelerate the built environment’s transition and develop it as a market?
VISIBLE dialogue participants from the Green Finance Institute, Green Building Council España and developer UNEXUM want permit and procurement decisions to better include sustainability factors; for the city to support lower embodied (as well as operational) carbon emissions development; and for the local green materials supply chain to be supported to grow. As the risk/cost playing field is not yet level for clean construction projects, there’s a need for much closer cooperation between public and private sectors, and for reassurances to be given to private capital.
Construction workforces are a critical part of the shift
An essential part of Madrid’s approach to sustainable construction is ensuring that workers’ voices are heard and their needs are met. The involvement of trade unions and workers’ representatives in shaping policy and practice is an important part of the city’s efforts to build a sustainable and fair future – as are the city’s pilots to welcome marginalised communities, including migrants and young trainees, into construction.
VISIBLE has been supporting an amazing workforce development project, TANDEM, that marries green building skills training with inclusive practices, to grow a more diverse workforce with clean construction skills.
Paula, one of the trainees involved, shared her experience: “I have learned at my own pace and gained valuable skills that will allow me to grow in this sector. The field trips and hands-on experience have made a big impact.” The project provides practical training opportunities, empowering young people, particularly those from vulnerable social backgrounds, with the skills needed for sustainable construction.
Enrique, another trainee, is developing new skills and a sense of confidence: “I’ve loved working with the teachers and meeting the workers there. We’re doing many things! Solar panels, vertical gardens… I’ve learned teamwork and also to trust and be more open.”
Nieves, a mentor with the programme, highlighted the broader impact of TANDEM: “We are able to show that this work has a positive impact on the people in the programme – more job opportunities, improved language skills, and the desire to work and gain professional experience. Our young people today have social vulnerabilities, so we need more initiatives like this through inclusive policies.”
The city administration is also engaging with construction unions.
“Here in Spain, the Global Financial Crisis bit hard; lots of people – we estimate 1 million – in construction were forced onto the streets. Now all of a sudden, we need 600,000 workers again. We need to create proper training – and to integrate women and refugees into the sector,” said Sergio López Rivera, from Sindical de Comisiones Obreras. Sergio Hernández Jimenez, from Unión General de Trabajadores, said clean construction is a chance to reimagine how the sector is viewed as an employer and how it works with unions: “When we talk about green jobs, there is such an opportunity to shift the paradigm and give the sector a ‘new face’ – an image that’s safe and stable….It’s also an opportunity for collaboration – to bring together companies and representatives to agree on new ways of working.”
The way forward
“Cities are in a race against time to halt climate change but also to ensure all people have access to decent homes,” said Marta Ribera Carbo, European Director of The Shift.
Madrid is a good example of a city understanding the built environment’s impact on its citizens and therefore the need to lead the change. Using its ability to look long-term and to bring different parts of the supply chain together, it is shaping policy to balance the aims of new and better buildings, lower carbon emissions and good, green jobs. Its ‘pilot’ demonstration projects will allow it to learn from shifts towards clean construction as they complete and are occupied.
More than ever, it’s at the city level that leadership is needed; as Julia Lopez Ventura, C40 Cities’ Regional Director for Europe, puts it: “Climate change is not stopping, while we are discussing politics!”