“It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth,” French revolutionary thinker Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in the 18th century. This idea of clinging to the simple instead of the correct in all its complexities could apply to how real estate is going about cutting carbon emissions. A new report by the Urban Land Institute and PwC says that while the real estate industry is putting decarbonisation and the climate crisis at the centre of its thinking, it may be going about it in the wrong way. Reducing carbon emissions has drastically increased in importance for the sector in the past 12 to 18 months, according to ULI and PwC’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate Global 2021 report. But too big a focus on the carbon emitted by buildings during their operation and not enough focus on the carbon emitted by developing new buildings is a potential problem for the industry. 
At best, the sector’s good intentions might be misdirected. At worst, it is borderline greenwashing, creating an image of being good for the environment to burnish your reputation, when you're actually not — an assertion that has already caused controversy. The report highlights how the “ Read the full story here. | 
