Green
Health and environmental stewardship
Real estate that works in concert with nature has the ability to uplift communities, improve business performance, and change our planet for the better. WOWA takes an ecosystems view of every development, charting how social, physical, and digital systems interact with the natural processes that support human life.
This approach enables clients to capture the value that living ecosystems provide, optimizing flows of materials, water, energy, and carbon; regulating dynamic environments for human health; and fostering well-being through immersive contact with the natural world.
Capturing the value of green development
According to McKinsey & Company, carbon emissions from the construction ecosystem are mainly driven by two components: raw-material processing for real estate (about 30 percent) and real estate operations (about 70 percent).
For this reason, high-performance design is the single most important factor in determining GHG emissions over a building’s lifetime.
The ability to control this vital aspect of performance is highest very early in a real estate development, before construction has started. Green standards for construction and building performance, and healthy building certifications, provide a baseline for best practices. But owners need to go further than the fundamentals to create healthy, resilient, and resource-efficient developments, establish themselves as industry leaders, and tap into accelerating market demand for real estate that centers human well-being and environmental stewardship. WOWA’s expertise supports clients’ highest ambitions in this area.
Representing owners’ interests
WOWA has delivered carbon neutral and net-zero energy real estate design, construction, and operations, exceeding the standards of local building codes or industry certification programs.
Our environmental leadership for real estate owners over the past thirty years has been recognized internationally, including by the German Sustainable Building Council, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the United Nations Environment Programme.
