To combat global warming, it is crucial to eliminate CO2 emissions by 2050, especially since a third of global emissions are attributed to the building and construction industry. This sector's carbon footprint comprises operational emissions from daily activities and embodied carbon throughout a building's lifecycle. However, as buildings become more energy-efficient, embodied carbon increasingly dominates total emissions. In the Netherlands, few residential projects align with the Dutch Climate Agreement's. This is due to various challenges hindering large-scale carbon reduction efforts, with financial barriers being a prominent issue. However, limited research focuses on financial barriers from the perspective of investors, often lacking in-depth analysis and offering few practical solutions for these challenges. Recognizing the need for carbon reduction, the industry must adopt a new approach to investment decisions, prioritizing embodied carbon considerations. This study delves into these financial barriers and how strategies to reduce embodied carbon impact real estate investment decision-making, focusing on the traditional Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. Therefore the main research question is:

“In what way does reducing embodied carbon in residential building projects impact the investment decision-making process from an investor's perspective?”

To explore this, the study first conducts a literature review and exploratory interviews, followed by three case studies with semi-structured interviews. The findings reveals that the integration of embodied carbon in the investment decision-making process is still in its early stages. Although there is growing awareness and interest, embodied carbon is not yet a standard consideration in investment decisions. This integration depends on the flexibility of investors and the specific sustainability goals of projects. Traditional financial models and evaluation methods have largely remained unchanged. The study concludes that there is a need for further standardization and integration of carbon reduction in all aspects of investment practices to encourage the construction sector to achieve the goal of carbon net-zero by 2050.

The way we work and the demand for offices is changing in the Netherlands. This poses the question whether the traditional office park is still viable. However, the demand for housing provides an opportunity to transform these outdated office parks into new mixed-use areas. This way the quality of the area could be improved, and the area could be utilised better in a time when demand for is high and available land is scarce. The literature shows that the transformation of office buildings to mixed-use can be successful. However, there is a lack of research on how this transformation process of office parks into mixed-use works on an urban area level. There is a lack of insight into the landowners and other actors in the transformation process. The available literature shows that landowners can oppose this transformation. The research design used is triangulation, utilizing multiple research methods to arrive at a conclusive answer. The research commenced with conducting a literature review, supplemented by an exploratory interview with a private investor, in order to establish a basis for the research. Case studies were then conducted, followed by a cross-analysis. Finally, an expert panel was conducted to verify the findings and to gain further insight into the research topic. This research, limited to the context of the Netherlands, aims to identify where the transformation process of office parks is hindered and to gain insight into the process and the roles played by different stakeholders. The objective is to provide municipalities with recommendations on using policy and regulations to entice market parties, particularly landowners, to initiate the transformation process. The results show that it is possible to use the same strategy for transformation projects on a higher abstraction level, however it needs to be flexible to respond and adapt to the location characteristics.

A considerable share of the global greenhouse gases is caused by the construction and real estate sector, but the increasing awareness on global climate change within the industry caused the emergence of multiple voluntary environmental certifications. The effects of environmental certification on office rents have received considerable attention in the last decade and there is now much evidence supporting the hypothesis that environmentally certified office buildings achieve higher rents over conventional office buildings. Although much attention has been paid to the United States office market, less attention was spent on the European and specifically the Dutch real estate market. The aim of this thesis is to examine the relationship between environmental certification and market value within the Dutch office market and therefore answers the following question: How does environmental certification influence market value within the dynamics of the Dutch office market? Empirical evidence shows that BREEAM-NL certified office buildings hold an average rental premium of 10.30% over non-certified offices. Furthermore, the rental premium in the G5 varies between 5.13% and 12.64%. The results indicate that the rental premium is positively correlated with the label score and show rental premiums of 10.19%, 6.18% and 14.34% for respectively BREEAM-NL Good, Very Good and Excellent. The results do not show significant occupancy premiums for BREEAM-NL certified offices. This practical evidence on the willingness to pay from the Dutch occupier market intends to bring clarification in the public debate and helps owners and investors in their decision-making around environmental certified investments in their building assets.

In the built environment, the continuous growth and expansion of urban areas worldwide have become alarming. The built environment is continuously developing in an unsustainable manner, and in the mid-term future, resources will be scarce if practices are not changed. Therefore, new building materials and methods need to be implemented to mitigate the substantial problem and prevent a point of no return. This research focuses on the Global South taking Kenya as a single case study to investigate the following research question: How can NGOs support local stakeholders in Kenya to shift the production of affordable housing by the use of circular materials and methods? This research design was conducted through a double-diamond framework, and data was collected in a qualitative manner. The objective is to understand housing practices in the local market to seek alternatives to shift affordable housing development into circular practices. By these means, this research attempts to provide information on the processes of support that NGOs can give to implement circular materials and methods in housing, strategies to create acceptance and adaptation of these materials in the local market and the ways to create economic and social value through circularity in the built environment. A comprehensive literature review was made to develop a foundation of knowledge for the empirical study.

Furthermore, as a result of the empirical study and the triangulation of data between the literature review and the research findings, a guideline for NGOs to help local stakeholders shift to circularity was created. The output of this study endeavours to develop an understanding of how the demand and the supply of circular materials and methods need to be tackled to be able to disseminate circularity in the local built environment and create the shift towards the use of these innovations and new building practices. As a result, the depletion of natural resources and the amount of CO2 emissions produced by the built environment in Kenya can be controlled while providing affordable and adequate housing for the country.

Material culture plays a significant role in our daily lives, however the value placed on processes involved in the creation of physical objects, manual skills and knowledge sharing has diminished due to the increasing reliance on large-scale infrastructure, standardization, and mass production. Additionally, the disposal of worn and abundant objects contributes to waste production. The thesis project aims to address these issues by exploring ways to regenerate disrupted areas in the diverse urban fabric of London through urban manufacturing and craftsmanship. The project investigates the potential for transitioning from a linear textile production process to a circular and localized production and reuse chain through adaptive reuse at the Truman's Brewery. The goal is to create a more sustainable and circular economy by localizing production networks, fostering synergies within industry and community, and efficiently using available resources. ‘Weaving the city’ means connecting loose ends, adding new threads, and repairing disruptions in the urban fabric.

Governments worldwide deal with the question of how to elevate their low-income household (LIH) into a higher standard of living. The main view of scholars on housing is that homeownership usually is the first step into improving the lives of people with a low income. The Province of Jakarta struggled with the same question. To address the housing challenge in Jakarta, they created the Zero Down-Payment Housing Program (ZDPHP) in 2017. This program's main purpose is to provide financing facilities to meet the basic need for adequate housing, targeting the LIH. However, the adaptation of this program has been slow, begging the question of what could be done to attract more beneficiaries. This article is intended to help improve the ZDPHP in Jakarta and give a perspective for other places thinking about implementing the same program. It explores the current eligibility criteria from the perspective of two out of five elements of the "5 As of Adequate Housing", Affordability and Accessibility, to understand the underlying housing challenge. Indicators of those two elements were collected from the data associated with the project. These data sources were supported and further explained using empirical data from policies analysis, interviews, FGDs, surveys and other existing databases. The most important findings were found as follows. Firstly, the best proportion of housing expenses to household income is to look at the actual comparison between household income and what a household pays for housing and transportation in its respective city. Secondly, to further strengthen the housing planning in Jakarta, an education program should be enforced alongside the ZDPHP. Lastly, with the recent launch of regulation regarding government land use permits, it is hoped that this will be a key solution to overcome land limitations and reduce house prices to become more accessible and affordable.