Sustainability should be about cutting costs, generating environmental benefits, creating more demand from consumers and therefore earning higher returns and profits. For Oxford, this is exactly what it is about.

Sustainable planning

There are 3 generic factors that must be covered to create sustainable planning:

1)  Planning has to be holistic. An example is shown using the Oxford 360 degree sustainability index below.

2) Planning has to be more open to change, especially in the fast-changing world of today.

3) Many different parties have to be involved in the planning process. That means local people as well as professionals. The more opinions you get, the wider context the planning gets.

Faster planning cycles mean a quicker return on your investment, lower construction costs mean profits rise, higher quality and higher demand buildings mean sales move more rapidly and can include a premium for consumers.

A few concrete examples are included below:

• Carefully planning the site placement of a building can definitely affect its reliance on mechanical heating and cooling systems as well as artificial light. The result is significant operating cost savings.
• Buildings are responsible for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. Sustainable buildings are designed to increase their operational efficiency – and decrease their emissions. By utilizing local renewable and recycled materials, fewer materials end up in landfills and the local economy benefits from reducing the extraction and processing of non-localized resources, plus costs are lower.
• There are also savings for the consumer - up to 50% energy; up to 35% carbon emission; up to 40% potable water ; up to 70% solid waste.

In conclusion, all the aspects mentioned above will promote higher building value, a higher return on investment and an enhanced asset value and profit that make a sustainable development into a top class investment opportunity.

Case Study – Oxford Park

Oxford Park is a perfect example of this approach. A fully planned and permitted development by the Oxford Sustainable Group near Tallinn in Estonia, it is the leading sustainable development in Europe featuring 150,000 gross square meters of outstanding commercial, office and retail facilities; residential homes; a top class hotel with convention centre and wellness spa and medical centre and renewable energy from biomass to solar panels. All integrated with economic, social, environmental, local residents, government policy, investment, finance, education, transport, All amenities are in walking distance so buyers have the option to live and work in the same area and many other factors making it the most advanced sustainable and lifestyle development in Europe today.

This master-planned community lies on 56 hectares of land, where a large part of the area is dedicated open space for community parks, forestry and outdoor leisure activities. We have chosen to locate these luxury residences and commercial area alongside a National Park because we are passionate about what this unique location has to offer. Oxford Park is a state-of-an-art multifunctional development, designed by our internationally acknowledged Italian architectural team – the future of sustainable development today.

Obviously there is great international interest for this development and Oxford have been persuaded to open the opportunity to a small number of select investment partners from Alan Forsyth’s property investment group who would like to become involved in a truly world-class project alongside Oxford’s own investment.

For more information and a downloadable PDF brochure of the Oxford Park Development click here

Our results and approach show that we are delivering higher returns and better quality projects than our peers in both the upswing and downswing. In this article, I explain in more detail one aspect of our thinking and how this is helping our bottom-line.

Oxford is currently most active in three development divisions. These are (a) renewable agriculture, (b) renewable energy and (c) sustainable development. At first glance, these divisions seem independent. In actual fact they are very interdependent and this defines Oxford’s thinking as a group.

We view these divisions as one whole energy system or energy lifecycle. In the first division, energy crops generate energy from the land and the sun, regenerate the land and absorb carbon from the atmosphere. In the second division these crops feed into biomass units which generate heat and electricity and are joined by wind and solar power for local electricity and community need and feed in to the (inter)national grid to supply a wider area with its power needs for energy security and balance. In the third division, the heat and power is used in buildings (industry, leisure, commerce, residential, social and so on), sustainably developed in a community concept.

This interdependence and sustainability matches Oxford’s thinking in the way we operate, for instance our 360 degree approach to stakeholders in developments (see my previous article on the Oxford 360 approach), the way we act as individuals and how we interact without the Group.

Currently this type of approach is not well used or understood by the investment and development community. In this sense, we continue to be leading edge in our projects and developments. By thinking practically, sensibly and sustainably, minimising excess cost, practicing local reuse and applying leading edge thinking combined with tried and tested technology, we stay ahead of the pack in performance.

Since our projects continue to generate above-industry norm results and supernormal returns in comparison to our peers and as the market continues to mature, we believe this truly sustainable and higher performance method will begin to be more widely used across all our markets. Within 10 years, a similar approach may well become the norm.

Have a question for our team to answer? Fill out your details here and we will get in touch immediately.

Hadley Barrett (CEO).

SUSTAINABLE LANDSCAPING
Arch. PhD Francesco De Luca

Sustainable landscape design is an approach to designing and constructing the natural landscapes that surround our buildings. If possible these landscapes should maintain themselves and survive by being part of the natural cycles of the local environment. This means finding out what the original local environment was like, although the landscape in our cities and even in rural areas, has undergone significant transformations almost everywhere.

A substantial contribution to creating a sustainable landscape can be made by restoring as much as possible of the original ecosystem and increasing the ecological value of urban sites, particularly where all the indigenous vegetation has been removed for development. In fact one of the most important aspects of sustainable landscaping is about designing landscapes to fit the new ecology created when buildings are constructed and putting back much of what was in place before development. This means introducing things that were not there before, especially new vegetation with the aim of helping to take up carbon dioxide, restoring and maintaining biodiversity, providing privacy from surrounding buildings and helping create pleasant areas for recreation. To obtain the above listed results it is important to make a careful plant selection by choosing the most efficient plants and vegetation that perform well in the local area, once established on existing soils and with existing rainfall patterns,  avoiding where possible non-native or exotic plants. Suitable plants may include native and indigenous plants which have adapted to local climate conditions and will require less work without the need for excessive watering, soil modification and intensive maintenance regimes.

Vegetation can be used to filter air from outside whilst indoor air quality is improved by selection of appropriate plants - some are able to take toxins like formaldehyde out of the air. At the same time, since vegetation can cool and filter air as part of a passive cooling strategy, it can be used as an integral part of passive design plan.

Sustainable landscaping is one of the key factors of ECO-Architecture design and developing real estate. For example, taking into account the characteristics of windbreaks vegetation, can reduce wind chill or the impact of hot winds, not to mention that plants used as windbreaks can save up to 30% on heating costs in winter. The use of such natural resources has been considered as a priority  in the planning of the mixed-used project for the J2 eco-village, in central Estonia. This has influenced all the various step of the development process, from the choice of the site, to the design of the general development layout, from the orientation of the houses in relation to local existing vegetation to the connections of interior spaces with green elements and exterior gardens.

The definition of a sustainable landscape has evolved to include landscape elements that are literally part of a building and among many solutions the most popular are green roofs and green walls.  Many extensive green roofs are constructed specifically to support native and indigenous vegetation with the prospect of enhancing or replacing the natural biodiversity of a place or region. Moreover roofs can be used to capture rainwater that can then be used to irrigate new vegetation, perhaps even on a roof garden or balcony. Capturing water this way also reduces the release of storm water to the street. Depending on their context, function, vegetation types and watering regimes, green walls can be seen as legitimate contributions to the creation of a sustainable landscape and may even be integrated into wastewater treatment systems

The extent and type of vegetation is obviously important but sustainable landscape design can do many things including providing practical solutions to reducing water use through water sensitive design and as part of a wastewater treatment system. The use of water bodies like ponds and water features can be integrated into a sustainable landscape solution as part of an overall water management system and as part of the passive climate response strategy for your home.
 
Finally, but as essential as the previous aspects,  the value of landscape materials, which account for much of the embedded energy in a landscape project, has to be considered. Since the basic idea is to consider the landscape as an integral part of your home’s sustainable design, it is important to think of reusing existing site materials such as pavers and excavated rocks; to employ recycled materials wherever possible such as crushed brick/ concrete, recycled timber and products like recycled glass. Where recycled timber is unavailable use sustainably managed plantation timber or timber composite products in preference to imported rainforest timbers.

Hadley Barrett www.oxfordsustainable.com

A few years ago we asked Estonian Professor Kalle Komissaarov to describe our sustainability concept to support our planning process in one project. At that time we were doing something sufficiently new and positive that we had to involve a professor in order to build credibility at the local government level, which had difficulty in believing that a developer could come with such plans. The professor wrote a document in the local language describing the latest trends in the world and why our approach is leading (and perhaps in 10 years, will be done by more developers), in order to create a versatile and suitable planning in any area. Below key elements from his analysis are included. This gives one vision of some of the thought behind the Oxford 360 Sustainability Index and our application of PMI.

"Economy and the society are changing so quickly which results in an opinion that in the long term strategic planning needs to be exchanged for  tactical planning (which is this sustainable planning). Strategic planning is a linear movement which will be put in place and then moved until the glorious end where the goals are achieved. But on the way  there they don't consider environment and all the changes are treated as threats. So for this type of approach there is an opposite approach called tactical planning. This term has been borrowed  from military terminology which in his first meaning represents tactical training.  There the solder has to take decisions during the whole training and act accordingly. Tactical planning is an open dynamic system. It starts with vision or strategy but during the process it is open to  changes so the end result can be very much different from the initial vision. Tactical planning does require involvement of bigger amount of people and information but as a reward it scatters and diminishes risks." wrote Kalle Komissarov.

There are three initial criteria how to judge if development is sustainable or not:

1. Planning has to be holistic. This can be obtained if you imagine a diagram, built of circles like a Venn diagram, which shows all the Oxford 360 degree Sustainability criteria overlapping (economic, social, investment, ecological, government policy, local residents' opinion, transport, energy, global effects, inter alia). The optimum planning is at the overlap of all the circles.

Holistic planning can be very well adapted into PMI since the methodology allows project phases to overlap and knowledge areas to interact. Actually it does not only allow it, but even has set up a separate knowledge area for that: integration management. This is why we have adapted PMI into our Oxford 360 approach.

2. Planning has to be more open to change, especially in the fast-changing world of today. One of the good ways to achieve this is following Oxford: big developments which take years to realise can be planned and implemented in a series of self-sufficient stages. This will ensure that the community that will be created will get the most appropriate development and the course will be dynamic enough to allow for market changes. Of course this requires flexibility in the planning and therefore considerable discussions with local and national authorities to enable this optimum solution to be implemented since it is often something new.

One small example, if it turns out that most of the people who have bought (or are planning to buy) houses in a development are young families with kids, then we have make sure that their needs are mostly covered. We need to make sure that there is a sufficient amount of kindergarten places, playgrounds, walking tracks, local schooling is improved, transport and entertainment is sufficient and so on. At the same time, we consider the investment and development profit. Generating a solid investment return means more finance is allocated for our activities, which in turn generates more positive benefit in a virtuous circle.

In PMI you have contingency plans, you have risk management and constant monitoring and controlling. Via change requests that have a certain procedure you can make sure that all changes that will be made are made considering these Oxford 360 Sustainability factors. So in this way you can manage the changes effectively and ensure full compliance with requirements.

3. Many different parties have to be involved in the planning process. That means local people as well as professionals. The more opinions you get, the wider context the planning gets. For Oxford it means generally: meetings with local people, local government, reading strategic studies about the area made by state institutions; meeting with professionals, getting their opinions. At the same time you must limit choices and go for the greater good in solutions chosen.

In PMI these people/organizations are called stakeholders and one of actions in PMI is to create a stakeholder list with requirements, so you can see, the various approaches can be made to effectively connect with a little thinking. Our approach to holistic planning itself is holistic.

As part of our CSR (corporate social responsibility), if the professionals create various studies, we present this to the local community, government, authorities and partners. This is educational material for them, and so the knowledge throughout the country rises and the quality level of developments also improves.

So if you have these 3 points covered, you should be able to start sustainable planning development. Sustainability is economically feasible (in the Oxford model more feasible than a non-sustainable approach) and therefore this type of development is very attractive from a business point of view.

Hadley Barrett www.oxfordsustainable.com

Now that we are starting to emerge from the aftermath of the financial crisis, it is worth spending some time to analyse which companies and individuals have come out unscathed and why?

Yes, markets have gone more slowly, but still, those companies which have tended to avoid great pain are the companies with a professional approach to clients and a lack of debt.

Many companies and individuals have became saddled with debt which put them in a risky position. Yes, leverage enhances your returns but at the cost of financial risk if things go wrong. A big win and also a big loss.

Leverage was the story of the heady decade of the new century. The current investment flavour is to play it safe and invest in cash assets which generate steady capital growth or consistent long term guaranteed income. This harks back to basics – save before you spend. It was and is a good policy.

A professional approach means treating clients, investors and partners with respect, following the law and not getting ahead of yourself in the race to build market share. At True Blue this is not enough. For us, business must be enjoyable and we therefore take a moral stance and follow business ethics which are in line with our own beliefs and actions.

That means honesty, transparency, a straightforward apporach to business and investing in areas which do not only generate high and/or regular returns but also have a positive benefit in the world. In other words, sustainable projects.

An example of an investment opportunity currently available which satisfies all of the above is our individual land purchase opportunity.

A simple opportunity where you purchase your own first class ’Black Earth’ agricultural land – with a low entry cost, zero debt/bank loans, a steady monthly or yearly payment in advance of 9% net by renting to local farmers and the chance of a capital gain of 57% in 5 years. A solid, steady and safe combination. All the while you are helping the world food crisis by bringing new agricultural land into production. At True Blue we let you arrange things yourself or we will manage the whole process for you as you prefer.

In the current investment climate, this is the type of opportunity that aligns your head, your heart and also your bank manager!

Hadley Barrett (Oxford Sustainable), for more information click here and add your full details and title your subject 'Hadley'.

by Hadley Barrett

“The current climate gives us great opportunities to earn high returns.

The economic crisis is well documented as “the worst recession since the War”, investors have lost considerable capital and effective real interest rates are -2.5%.

We are in a totally unique position, where governments, institutions, consumers and business are all aligned to demand the same product. Yet there is not enough KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE, PROFESSIONALISM and INVESTMENT on the market to supply it.

New industrializing and emerging nations, such as China, India, Brazil and the Central and Eastern European market are developing a massive energy need not before seen in the world, with a 50% increase needed in the next 20 years. The European demand for energy is high and rapidly increasing.

This suggests strong growth prospects for companies in this market.

i) The European Union and national governments have set strict regulation targets for EU nations to increase their renewable energy production. In some EU states, the target  increase is over 100% of current production by 2020.

ii) Consumers are demanding cheaper, greener, more sustainable energy production and products.

iii) Business is aligning itself with their consumer base and requires sustainable energy solutions

Oxford plans to deliver excellent returns to our investors.

We expect 20% per annum net after costs and fees.

Our projects are intelligently planned and executed and satisfy the growing demand for change in the EU.

Biomass, wind and solar provide the clean, safe, cheap, pollution-free and abundant energy that is demanded, which neither compromises our lifestyle nor the environment in which we live, but which improves on both.

The economic crisis also gives us unique opportunities to purchase land and projects for renewable energy development at low prices not seen for many years.

Oxford has already been involved in the development of renewable energy and sustainable developments in CEE for a number of years.

We:

- are the only CarbonNeutral developer in the CEE region,

- have developed the market leading Oxford 360 degree Sustainability Index,

- have been asked to present, train and help governments, banks, global estate companies during various events in the UK, The Netherlands, the Baltics and the Balkans.

EXPERIENCE

The experience of our team in our target markets is formidable, for instance;

- management of the largest wind park in Finland;

- planned the 4th largest biomass system in Estonia;

- planned the largest biomass system on the Romanian Black Sea coastline;

-more renewable energy projects under development than any other independent developer in the region we are aware of.

INVESTMENT

We put our money where our mouth is and invest our money into our projects.”

*Hadley is over in London on Tuesday 3rd November and is available to meet interested investors during the day, and we will be having a presentation in the evening in Central London.

As discussed this investment is only suitable for high net worth or sophisticated investors.

This investment into a growing market, with a vastly experienced team – can offer excellent potential returns!

For more information, email investments@propertysecrets.net or call us on 0115 985 3963.