From plans to action

The clock is ticking: 2030 is rapidly approaching. By then, organisations must reduce the CO2 emissions of their buildings by at least 55%, in line with Dutch climate policy and European agreements. To achieve this, most organisations have drawn up ambitious sustainability plans. But in practice, it turns out that making plans is one thing — implementing them is quite another.

So why does implementation often stall? We frequently see:
- A lack of a clear timeline and step-by-step plan
- No budgets allocated for sustainability measures
- Sustainability efforts being overshadowed by other issues such as grid congestion, staff shortages, and navigating complex legislation

Does this sound familiar to you? In this blog, Anne Spira, Associate Director Competence Centre Sustainable Buildings, will guide you on how to make the leap from planning to implementation.

Why sustainability is not the same as management and maintenance — but smart to combine

Improving the sustainability of buildings has a clear goal: to reduce a building’s energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. This can be achieved by better insulation, more efficient systems, or switching to renewable energy sources. But how does this fit into the daily work of a real estate owner?

Many owners are primarily focused on maintaining their buildings: ensuring they remain safe, functional, and comfortable. This is known as management and maintenance. Think of fixing leaks, replacing systems, or reconfiguring spaces.

Sustainability is different. It is a one-off, targeted process: implementing a series of measures to structurally improve the building. However, since sustainability often involves construction work, it’s smart to first consider the future of the building and then link sustainability to planned maintenance activities. This way, you can avoid duplication and save costs.

Sustainability requires coordination and coherence

Sustainability is rarely a single intervention. Often it involves multiple buildings or locations within one organisation. It’s more of a programme than a project — with various measures, phases, and stakeholders involved. This requires coordination.

To maintain oversight, it’s important to break down the task into blocks. This allows phased financing and keeps implementation manageable. A programme manager fits well here, someone who oversees the whole, brings structure, and can liaise at management level.

In practice, sustainability efforts often run alongside regular management and maintenance. This means you will temporarily need extra capacity in terms of budget, people, and expertise. Think of technical project managers, temporary staff, or external consultants who can assist.

Finally, there is the handover. After completion — for example, of the building envelope or installations — the building re-enters the maintenance cycle, but now with a sustainable foundation. To ensure this transition runs smoothly, it’s important that technical teams are involved and trained during the process. This enables them to manage the upgraded building effectively. This process is called commissioning.

What does it really mean to implement sustainability measures?

Implementing sustainability isn’t a linear process. There’s no one-size-fits-all roadmap. Instead, it’s more like navigating a network of pathways, depending on your organisation’s starting point, available resources, and the obstacles you encounter.

Securing funding

Once you know what measures are needed, the next question is: how are you going to pay for this? For many organisations, this is the moment sustainability efforts stall. Not because of lack of will, but because financing is often more complex than expected.

What makes sustainability challenging is that it’s not a single investment at one moment. It’s a process spanning several years, with different measures each having their own costs and timing. So, you need not only a total budget but also insight into when each amount needs to be available. This requires cash flow management: thinking ahead, planning, and being able to adjust flexibly.

Some organisations try to integrate sustainability into their Long-Term Maintenance Plan (LTMP). By combining works — for example, replacing a roof and adding insulation at the same time — synergy benefits arise. You only need to erect scaffolding once, hire a contractor once, and you avoid duplicate work. This transforms the LTMP into a Sustainable LTMP (SLTMP): a maintenance plan that preserves and improves.

Still, a regular LTMP usually covers only a limited share of the costs. Because it assumes one-for-one replacement, in practice, only 15 to 20 percent of sustainability costs can be absorbed in this way. Additional financing is needed for the remainder.

This is precisely where it gets tricky. How do you convince management to allocate extra funds? How do you tap into available subsidies? And which contract form suits your organisation best: a traditional loan, an energy performance contract, or maybe a DBFM(O) structure where design, build, finance, and maintenance are bundled?

Often, it’s a mix of sources tailored to the phasing of your roadmap. This means you need not only a good story but also a solid financial plan — one that shows what the investment yields, in euros but also in comfort, future-readiness, and societal value.

From plan to execution: how do you make it concrete?

Once financing is secured, the board can greenlight the construction phase. Then it’s time to translate plans into concrete projects. This means defining projects, setting up the organisation, preparing tender documents, determining an execution strategy, and ensuring the right parties are on board.

At this stage, it’s important to stay focused on the scope. Sustainability often touches on other building aspects — from aesthetics to user comfort. A measure that looks straightforward on paper can be more costly in practice if, for example, colour choices or layout changes come into play. Then it’s no longer just about sustainability but also aesthetics and accommodation. Good coordination and clear decisions are essential to maintain control over time, budget, and results.

From plan to implementation, with an approach that works

Sustainability is not an extension of management and maintenance. It’s one-off, strategic, and requires different knowledge, skills, and ways of organising. That’s why it’s crucial to choose an approach that fits your organisation, your buildings, and your ambitions.

The actual process often differs from your initial expectations. What matters is keeping the goal front and centre rather than fixating on specific measures, turning obstacles into opportunities, and seeking collaboration to keep each other sharp, support one another when things go wrong, and build support.

As an independent partner, we think along with you — from plan to implementation. Not just standard advice but a process tailored to your situation. We help you make choices, explore financing options, and truly take steps towards a more sustainable real estate portfolio.

Would you like to learn more about how we develop and implement roadmaps together with organisations? Or discuss your specific challenge with one of our experts? Feel free to get in touch — we’re happy to help.