Vía Célere strengthens its commitment to sustainability and reduces the impact of its water footprint

• According to the UAM-Vía Célere Observatory study on environmental sustainability in residential construction, each built square metre carries a blue water footprint of 5 cubic metres of water.
• Coinciding with the International Water Day, Vía Célere has announced its commitment to return 20% of its blue water footprint in 2019 by supporting social projects related to improving water management.

Each residential built square metre generates a blue water footprint of 5 cubic metres. This is the main conclusion drawn from the first study conducted by the Residential Construction Environmental Sustainability Observatory promoted by Vía Célere and the Autonomous University of Madrid, which both entities presented on 21 March at a public event held at the Cotec Foundation.

According to this pioneering research in calculating the water footprint of residential construction, a typical development of 100 homes of 100 square metres each, generates a blue water footprint, defined as the volume of water (from surface or underground sources) consumed during the production process, similar to what would be needed to fill 20 Olympic swimming pools.

Vía Célere’s water footprint and its commitment

Via Célere aims to be a pioneer in measuring the water footprint of its own developments. In 2019, the company will hand over some 1,200 homes representing approximately 240,000 m2 of built area and a blue water footprint of 1,200,000 m3.

After finding out this information, Vía Célere has also announced its commitment to return a percentage of its blue water footprint each year by supporting social projects related to improving water management. In 2019, the developer has committed to recover for the environment 20% of the blue water footprint of the developments that it will hand over this year.

Célere Cities, sustainable cities and urban environments

This initiative by the company is part of the developer’s commitment to the creation of more sustainable cities and urban environments. Célere Cities emerges as one of the company’s fundamental strategies, through which it reaches out to its stakeholders to continue advancing in the construction of cities that are more respectful of the social surroundings and the environment, in line with the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Cities are the nerve centre of our society, with an increasing percentage of the population choosing to live in a large city. But there are numerous problems that threaten the sustainability of our urban environments and the real estate sector must play a key role in the development of cities”, said Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, President of Vía Célere. “For this reason, we have launched Célere Cities, a new area from which to use all our knowledge in building homes to contribute to creating more sustainable cities and better urban environments, and to strengthen our commitment to the sustainability of the real estate sector’s activity, starting with our water footprint”, explained Gómez-Pintado.

Célere Cities has chosen water as its first focal point in 2019, given that it is an aspect of building sustainability that is considered less than others, such as environmental pollution or energy consumption, but it is equally relevant. This is reflected in the fact that, according to the United Nations, water scarcity affects more than 40% of the world’s population and, at the same time, rapid urbanization is placing great pressure on fresh water supplies, wastewater, the living environment and public health.

Given all this data, Vía Célere has decided to take a step forward, in its role as residential developer, to improve the urban environment and contribute to creating more sustainable cities together with all the collaborators who would like to join this line of action.