Matthias Haase’s research while affiliated with ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences and other places

The definition, characterization and implementation of Positive Energy Districts is crucial in the path towards urban decarbonization and energy transition. However, several issues still must be addressed: the need for a clear and comprehensive definition, and the settlement of a consistent design approach for Positive Energy Districts. As emerged throughout the workshop held during the fourth edition of Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions Conference (SSPCR 2022) in Bolzano (Italy), further critical points are also linked to the planning, modeling and assessment steps, besides sustainability aspects and stakeholders’ involvement. The “World Café” methodology adopted during the workshop allowed for simple—but also effective and flexible—group discussions focused on the detection of key PED characteristics, such as morphologic, socio-economic, demographic, technological, quality-of-life and feasibility factors. Four main work groups were defined in order to allow them to share, compare and discuss around five main PED-related topics: energy efficiency, energy flexibility, e-mobility, soft mobility, and low-carbon generation. Indeed, to properly deal with PED challenges and crucial aspects, it is necessary to combine and balance these technologies with enabler factors like financing instruments, social innovation and involvement, innovative governance and far-sighted policies. This paper proposes, in a structured form, the main outcomes of the co-creation approach developed during the workshop. The importance of implementing a holistic approach was highlighted: it requires a systematic and consistent integration of economic, environmental and social aspects directly connected to an interdisciplinary cross-sectorial collaboration between researchers, policymakers, industries, municipalities, and citizens. Furthermore, it was reaffirmed that, to make informed and reasoned decisions throughout an effective PED design and planning process, social, ecological, and cultural factors (besides merely technical aspects) play a crucial role. Thanks to the valuable insights and recommendations gathered from the workshop participants, a conscious awareness of key issues in PED design and implementation emerged, and the fundamental role of stakeholders in the PED development path was confirmed.

Cities face the challenge of addressing urban vacancies due to market volatility, rapid shifts in needs, demand, user preferences, or issues related to financing, planning, or delays in building approvals common in cities like Zürich. The study delves into a transformative shift in the Swiss real estate market, emphasizing the integration of circular economy principles, impact investments, and digitalization. The research approach is mainly descriptive, drawing upon case studies of temporary use urban projects. It incorporates a review coupled with the application of design thinking in the development of a digitalization model. In Zürich, the temporary use of vacant buildings is predominantly as office space showing a limited multi-scalar impact. In contrast, in vacant sites, Nature-based Solutions interventions demonstrated high multi-scalar impacts, enhancing biodiversity, air quality, and resident well-being, and aligning with circular economy principles. Meanwhile, various flexible uses of vacant sites indicated moderate impact, promoting innovation and new business models. A digitalization model is proposed to re-purpose these sites in circular rather than linear economy. The research underscores the importance of temporary, flexible uses on vacant site as platforms for testing new multi-scalar impact investment ideas and establishing the financial profitability of nature-based solutions in urban contexts. The study highlights the potential of temporary urban land use to promote swift urban transformations, balancing financial returns with ecological impacts for advancing circular economy.

In Circular Economy Management, various stakeholders play different roles that contribute to the value chain within the circular economy. These stakeholders need to be tracked and motivated to contribute to a circular economy. In addition, real estate developers as well as facility managers have a growing interest in both, the expansion of the value chain within the building as well as associated with facility services within the optimized building operation. The research approach is drawing upon real estate development projects as case studies. It maps the different stakeholders and analyses their role in the value creation. A range of new value creation stakeholders were identified and analysed to which extend their role is defined in traditional business models. The key benefits for owners and real estate investors comes from the adaptability to changing market demands, re-use and repurpose, low impact on urban ecology and biodiversity, innovative new real estate products among others. This study shows the benefits of encouraging stakeholders to actively participate in the co-creation and co-innovation of circular solutions. This involves identifying different stakeholders in the design and development of strategies, policies, and projects related to the circular economy. By defining their new role, diverse business models, as well as innovative and effective solutions can be developed.

Various models of Circular Economy (CE) principles have been developed in various sectors. This paper tries to give an overview of the main existing models found in literature. It explains the origins and evaluates the purpose by classifying the underlying definitions. It then compares the different models, explains the limitations and concludes with resulting principles for real estate applications. It takes a closer look at existing circular economy principles and which circular economy principles can be applied for space and infrastructure. The research approach is based on an extensive literature review of existing CE models and underlying principles in the built environment. A stepwise analysis is applied to each model. A collection of CE models is presented that helps to complete our understanding of the opportunities and limitations of CE strategies. This study analyses the existing CE models in a comprehensive manner. By comparing the different origins is manages to explain the opportunities and limitations of the different models. Providing the knowledge results in a better understanding of current CE strategies is a valuable addition to our current understanding of CE business models in real estate management.

This paper presents the Positive Energy District Database (PED DB), a pivotal web tool developed collaboratively by the COST Action ‘PED-EU-NET,’ in alignment with international initiatives such as JPI Urban Europe and IEA EBC Annex 83. The PED DB represents a crucial step towards sharing knowledge, promoting collaboration, reinforcing decision-making, and advancing the understanding of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in the pursuit of sustainable urban environments. The PED DB aims to comprehensively map and disseminate information on PEDs across Europe, serving as a dynamic resource for sustainable urban development according to the objective of making the EU climate-neutral by 2050. Indeed, PEDs imply an integrated approach for designing urban areas—the districts—where a cluster of interconnected buildings and energy communities produce net zero greenhouse gas emissions, managing an annual local/regional overflow production of renewable energy. The paper describes the collaborative step-by-step process leading to the PED DB implementation, the current results and potentials of the online platform, and introduces its future developments towards a more user-friendly and stakeholders-tailored tool. The interactive web map offers a customizable visualizations and filters on multiple information related to PED case studies, PED-relevant cases, and PED Labs. Users can access detailed information through a table view, facilitating comparisons across different PED projects and their implementation phase. The paper offers insights and detailed analysis from the initial dataset that includes 23 PED cases and 7 PED-related projects from 13 European countries, highlighting the key characteristics of surveyed PEDs.

Roughly 97% of the European Union (EU) building stock is not considered energy efficient, and 75–85% of it will still be in use in 2050 (Artola et al., Boosting building renovation: What potential and value for Europe? 2016). Residential buildings account for around two thirds of final energy consumption in European buildings. The rate at which new buildings either replace the old stock or expand the total stock is about 1% per year. Similarly, the current renovation rate of existing buildings in the EU is about 1–2% of the building stock renovated each year. Renovation strategies on building levels need to be derived from a combination of energy efficiency upgrades to buildings and the use of renewable energy to decarbonize the energy supply, on a district or city scale. IEA EBC Annex 75 subtask D2 focuses on promoting cost-effective building renovation at district level combining energy efficiency and renewable energy systems, by focusing on the business models that can make implementation possible. This paper intends to provide an overview of the business model archetypes that can support the development of district demand and/or supply of energy-efficient building renovations and/or renewable energy solutions by targeting various types of stakeholders. It builds upon existing literature to gain insights into the current distributed energy business model landscape. Further, implementation strategies are identified that focus on a holistic evaluation of the expected energy and CO 2 performance of the site and optimized infrastructure investment pathways.

The development of districts requires a distinct understanding of the current situation as well as a vision of future districts to be able to develop suitable pathways for a sustainable transition. The concept of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is one of the main initiatives in Europe for the clean energy transition in the built environment. While PEDs are mainly heading for the energy transition, little is known how they relate to the holistic concept of planetary boundaries (PB). To be able to build representative methodology for sustainability assessment of PEDs as well as define comparable, measurable, and reliable indicators specifically targeted for the district scale, we take a closer look at the concept of PB in order to analyze how this concept can help to establish a holistic sustainability evaluation of PEDs. Below we present an analysis of two PED concepts to discuss their interrelation with the PB concept. Our research is based on literature and document analysis. We identify the need for a comprehensive understanding of the different aspects impacting the sustainability assessment of PEDs. In this sense, although highly advisable, an integrated and systemic approach to the sustainability assessment of PEDs has still not been consolidated and the main environmental, economic, and social pillars are usually treated as separate spheres with limited interlinked issues.

Despite the increased research regarding the sustainability transition towards the circular economy (CE) model, the existing literature on adopting and implementing the CE concept reinforcing educational approaches in secondary education seems limited. Considering the current challenges and the critical role of education to empower built environment management students to explore new paths of sustainable development and grow into active citizens, conscious producers, and consumers, this contribution investigates new ways of effective tools for teaching CE and sustainability concepts. The literature review has revealed a research gap regarding the formulation of educational approaches to effectively support CE concepts for higher education students, particularly in Swiss Facility Management education. The paper describes and critically discusses how an introduction of CE to master-level students to the circularity and sustainability perspective, prepare them to build prosperity, and act circularly in the future. A list of skills is presented which can be bundled into one holistic education. This provides valuable information for developing suitable programme in Higher Education which aims at the use and development of competitive methods and solutions for managing existing and new buildings that will contribute to lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the production, use, management, and demolition of architecture in a life-cycle perspective should be based on these skills.

The COST Action ‘PED-EU-NET’, JPI Urban Europe, IEA EBC Annex 83 and EERA JP Smart Cities can be considered as the main promoters and pioneer initiatives of the research on Positive Energy Districts (PEDs), that collaborated to develop a tool called 'PED Database'. The tool aims to map, filter, sort, and compare PED experiences, providing a balanced overview of the technological and non-technological solutions adopted in different PED projects and case studies around Europe and beyond. The paper aims to present the collaborative step-by-step process leading to the PED DB implementation, describing the adopted methodology, the current results and potentials of the online version platform and introducing its future possible developments towards a more user-friendly and stakeholders-tailored tool.