Strategy

Urban Regeneration

The expansion of towns and cities to meet the need for housing, public infrastructure and economic development, in particular, is leading to urban sprawl, with its over-consumption of resources, increased carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity and fragmentation of the social fabric. 
 

Every year, almost 450 km² of land is built up in Europe, to the detriment of agricultural and natural areas. Given this situation, the European Union has set itself an ambitious target: ‘zero net artificialisation’ by 2050. This ambition limits the availability of land and reinforces the importance of alternative solutions.

The redevelopment of brownfield sites therefore appears to be a strategic response: transforming obsolete land, often polluted but ideally located in the heart of cities, into neighbourhoods capable of simultaneously meeting the need for housing, work spaces and shops, while responding to the environmental challenges facing cities.

Ginkgo has worked with think-tank Systemiq to produce a white paper highlighting the investment opportunity presented by urban regeneration in Europe. It concludes that the housing and workspace needs of the European Union and the UK over the next 15 years could be met through the regeneration of brownfield sites and the redeployment of vacant offices. This approach would represent an investment opportunity estimated at €4,000 billion.

The White Paper entitled “Urban Regeneration: Turning Obsolescence into Value for Society, Nature, Climate and Investors” is available here.

Our Approach

Ginkgo’s investment strategy is structured around three key steps:

1. Acquire a portfolio of polluted brownfields and obsolete buildings.
2. Clean up these lands through virtuous and ambitious remediation strategies.
3. Redevelop the sites in line with local urban planning, creating sustainable mixed-use neighborhoods that combine housing, offices, shops, and public spaces.

In this way, each Ginkgo project contributes to improving soil and groundwater quality, revitalizing the urban fabric, reducing the environmental footprint and offering local communities healthier and more attractive living spaces.

Investment steps

Our Impact

By rebuilding the city on itself, Ginkgo transforms urban wastelands and obsolete buildings into productive and attractive places to live, creating value - economic value for investors, environmental and social value for local communities and their inhabitants. 

This creation of value is highlighted in the white paper Transforming obsolescence into value for society, nature, the climate and investors, which draws on academic research as well as concrete examples drawn from the experience of Ginkgo and other players in the sector.
 

The report concludes that, in addition to the creation of housing and workspaces that are essential to European competitiveness and the well-being of local residents, regeneration projects avoid the consumption of virgin land on the outskirts of towns and cities by a factor of up to 3 to 4. 

Already connected to urban networks, these sites reduce the carbon footprint of new developments by up to 50% and offer local authorities up to 20% savings on infrastructure compared with traditional urban expansion. 
 

The environmental and social impacts of Ginkgo's investment strategy, and how they are measured, are set out below.