IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i9p5179-d549434.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Drivers and Barriers Leading to a Successful Paradigm Shift toward Regenerative Neighborhoods

Author

Listed:
  • Edeltraud Haselsteiner

    (Urbanity—Architecture, Art, Culture and Literature, 1140 Vienna, Austria)

  • Blerta Vula Rizvanolli

    (Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, UBT College, 10000 Pristina, Kosovo)

  • Paola Villoria Sáez

    (TEMA Research Group, Escuela Técnica Superior de Edificación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • Odysseas Kontovourkis

    (Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus, Nicosia 1678, Cyprus)

Abstract

Regenerative sustainability is gaining great attention as an essential concept for a transformative process, a re-designed mindset shifting from the narrowed focus of considering particular aspects such as energy efficiency, renewable materials, or sustainable technology towards the creation of a self-regenerating social and ecological system. Apart from being a vision of the future, regenerative sustainability has already been implemented successfully in individual projects, plans, and extensive strategies. The goals of this research are (1) to set up the conceptual framework for regenerative sustainability principles in the built environment; (2) to investigate and identify the drivers and barriers faced during the implementation of regenerative principles in the built environment; and (3) to identify gaps in the paradigm shift towards regenerative districts and macro-level projects. A multi-stage methodology was implemented. First, an in-depth literature review was conducted aiming to understand regenerative sustainability state of the art and define the key principles. Then, quantitative data analysis was conducted aiming to identify drivers and barriers of regenerative implementation in buildings following by semi-structured interviews with the representatives of regenerative buildings or districts. The step-by-step methodology resulted in the identified drivers of applying the regenerative principles, which are available financial incentives; marketing and sales benefits; improved companies/investors market image and competitive market advantage; reduced building lifecycle costs/effective use of energy and resources; enhancement buildings’ users’ well-being; and receiving building certification. The main barriers identified were lack of knowledge and experience working with regenerative materials and technologies by employees, consultants, and construction companies and usage of the available tools that enable such constructions; overall stakeholders’ culture and their resistance to changing their mindset toward a regenerative approach; inadequacy of national and international standards and legislation to address regenerative policies; and increased construction cost and time and lack of financial incentives. Ultimately, during the broad examination of the case studies, regenerative qualities served as a valuable insight to understand barriers and drivers at neighborhood and macro levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Edeltraud Haselsteiner & Blerta Vula Rizvanolli & Paola Villoria Sáez & Odysseas Kontovourkis, 2021. "Drivers and Barriers Leading to a Successful Paradigm Shift toward Regenerative Neighborhoods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-22, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5179-:d:549434
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5179/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/9/5179/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kathleen Bolger & Andréanne Doyon, 2019. "Circular cities: exploring local government strategies to facilitate a circular economy," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(11), pages 2184-2205, November.
    2. repec:arz:wpaper:eres2009-331 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Naboni, Emanuele & Natanian, Jonathan & Brizzi, Giambattista & Florio, Pietro & Chokhachian, Ata & Galanos, Theodoros & Rastogi, Parag, 2019. "A digital workflow to quantify regenerative urban design in the context of a changing climate," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Leslie Sklair, 2005. "The Transnational Capitalist Class and Contemporary Architecture in Globalizing Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 485-500, September.
    5. Mara Forsberg & Clarice Bleil de Souza, 2021. "Implementing Regenerative Standards in Politically Green Nordic Social Welfare States: Can Sweden Adopt the Living Building Challenge?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Giulia Sonetti & Martin Brown & Emanuele Naboni, 2019. "About the Triggering of UN Sustainable Development Goals and Regenerative Sustainability in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, January.
    7. Hossain, Md. Uzzal & Ng, S. Thomas & Antwi-Afari, Prince & Amor, Ben, 2020. "Circular economy and the construction industry: Existing trends, challenges and prospective framework for sustainable construction," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    8. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Griffiths, Steve, 2020. "The cultural barriers to a low-carbon future: A review of six mobility and energy transitions across 28 countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. Paola Villoria Sáez & Mercedes Del Río Merino & César Porras-Amores & Jaime Santa Cruz Astorqui & Natalia González Pericot, 2019. "Analysis of Best Practices to Prevent and Manage the Waste Generated in Building Rehabilitation Works," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-14, May.
    10. Richard Reed & Anita Bilos & Sara J. Wilkinson & Karl-Werner Schulte, 2009. "An International Comparison of International Sustainable Building Tools," ERES eres2009_331, European Real Estate Society (ERES).
    11. Stephenson, Janet & Barton, Barry & Carrington, Gerry & Gnoth, Daniel & Lawson, Rob & Thorsnes, Paul, 2010. "Energy cultures: A framework for understanding energy behaviours," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 6120-6129, October.
    12. Gabriele Cepeliauskaite & Zaneta Stasiskiene, 2020. "The Framework of the Principles of Sustainable Urban Ecosystems Development and Functioning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, January.
    13. Ming Shan & Bon-Gang Hwang & Lei Zhu, 2017. "A Global Review of Sustainable Construction Project Financing: Policies, Practices, and Research Efforts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-17, December.
    14. Piero Morseletto, 2020. "Restorative and regenerative: Exploring the concepts in the circular economy," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 24(4), pages 763-773, August.
    15. Mosannenzadeh, Farnaz & Di Nucci, Maria Rosaria & Vettorato, Daniele, 2017. "Identifying and prioritizing barriers to implementation of smart energy city projects in Europe: An empirical approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 191-201.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. William Craft & Lan Ding & Deo Prasad, 2021. "Developing a Decision-Making Framework for Regenerative Precinct Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-23, November.
    2. Doil Kim & Kabsung Kim, 2022. "Financial Support for Neighborhood Regeneration: A Case Study of Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Qingchang He & Andras Reith, 2022. "(Re)Defining Restorative and Regenerative Urban Design and Their Relation to UNSDGs—A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-29, December.
    2. Sultan Çetin & Catherine De Wolf & Nancy Bocken, 2021. "Circular Digital Built Environment: An Emerging Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-34, June.
    3. Gordon, Joel A. & Balta-Ozkan, Nazmiye & Nabavi, Seyed Ali, 2022. "Homes of the future: Unpacking public perceptions to power the domestic hydrogen transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    4. Goggins, Gary & Rau, Henrike & Moran, Paul & Fahy, Frances & Goggins, Jamie, 2022. "The role of culture in advancing sustainable energy policy and practice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    5. Chen, Hong & Gangopadhyay, Partha & Singh, Baljeet & Shankar, Sriram, 2022. "Measuring preferences for energy efficiency in ACI and EU nations and uncovering their impacts on energy conservation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    6. Gordon, Joel A. & Balta-Ozkan, Nazmiye & Nabavi, Seyed Ali, 2022. "Beyond the triangle of renewable energy acceptance: The five dimensions of domestic hydrogen acceptance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    7. Angeliki Peponi & Paulo Morgado, 2020. "Transition to Smart and Regenerative Urban Places (SRUP): Contributions to a New Conceptual Framework," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    8. Ray, Manojit & Chakraborty, Basab, 2022. "Impact of demand flexibility and tiered resilience on solar photovoltaic adoption in humanitarian settlements," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 895-912.
    9. Kowalska-Pyzalska, Anna & Maciejowska, Katarzyna & Suszczyński, Karol & Sznajd-Weron, Katarzyna & Weron, Rafał, 2014. "Turning green: Agent-based modeling of the adoption of dynamic electricity tariffs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 164-174.
    10. Seeram Ramakrishna & Wayne Hu & Rajan Jose, 2023. "Sustainability in Numbers by Data Analytics," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    11. Mateusz Wielopolski & Willem Bulthuis, 2023. "The Better Building Initiative — a Collaborative Ecosystem Involving All Stakeholders as Catalyst to Accelerate the Adoption of Circular Economy Innovations in the Construction Sector," Circular Economy and Sustainability,, Springer.
    12. Michel Noussan & Matteo Jarre, 2021. "Assessing Commuting Energy and Emissions Savings through Remote Working and Carpooling: Lessons from an Italian Region," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-19, November.
    13. Durán-Romero, Gemma & López, Ana M. & Beliaeva, Tatiana & Ferasso, Marcos & Garonne, Christophe & Jones, Paul, 2020. "Bridging the gap between circular economy and climate change mitigation policies through eco-innovations and Quintuple Helix Model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    14. Marian Stuiver & Sabine O’Hara, 2021. "Food Connects Washington DC in 2050—A Vision for Urban Food Systems as the Centerpieces of a Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-18, July.
    15. Albert S. Fu & Martin J. Murray, 2014. "Glorified Fantasies and Masterpieces of Deception on Importing Las Vegas into the ‘New South Africa’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 843-863, May.
    16. Makarenko, Inna & Serpeninova, Yulia & Pogorila, Kateryna, 2018. "Інституційне Забезпечення Фінансування Сталого Розвитку У Світлі Мультистейкхолдерського Підходу," Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, Agricultural and Resource Economics: International Scientific E-Journal, vol. 4(2), June.
    17. Jim Lewis & Kerrie Mengersen & Laurie Buys & Desley Vine & John Bell & Peter Morris & Gerard Ledwich, 2015. "Systems Modelling of the Socio-Technical Aspects of Residential Electricity Use and Network Peak Demand," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-21, July.
    18. Hopkins, Debbie & Stephenson, Janet, 2016. "The replication and reduction of automobility: Findings from Aotearoa New Zealand," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 92-101.
    19. Debnath, R. & Bardhan, R. & Darby, S. & Mohaddes, K. & Sunikka-Blank, M. & Coelho, A C V. & Isa, A., 2020. "A deep-narrative analysis of energy cultures in slum rehabilitation housing of Abuja, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro for just policy design," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 20101, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. Hopkins, Debbie & Stephenson, Janet, 2014. "Generation Y mobilities through the lens of energy cultures: a preliminary exploration of mobility cultures," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 88-91.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:9:p:5179-:d:549434. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.