Sustainabilty of Large Real Estate Projects: Case Study of Vila Nova de Santo Estêvão

Abstract

This article analyses the contribution to the systematic assessment of sustainability in major real estate projects, both at the environmental level and its interactions with the various infrastructures that constitute the project or in which they are integrated. Hence, the adoption of sustainability policies as an instrument of paradigm change, enabling better use of new technologies and allowing significant waste reduction is reducing the ecological impact.

Aiming to assess qualitative and quantitative impacts and to propose a set of measures that can reduce these ecological impacts it is increasingly urgent to consider the actual and potential impacts associated with the construction environment of large buildings . The analysis of the situation should be held in a preliminary phase, in order to facilitate the identification of the adequate measures that minimize the impacts and, if possible, its complete elimination.

The creation of more sustainable environments where urban green spaces play a key role in the citizens' quality of life is a common concern and priority for all stakeholders, including not only industry and governments but also citizens.

This Vila Nova de Santo Estêvão enterprise (VNSE) is a real case project whose impacts’ assessment has been done for the infrastructures of the golf course, the WWTP (Wastewater Treatment Plant) and the reservoir, according to an adaptation of the LiderA classification, widely used in Portugal.