SDG pioneer Bopro has been building sustainable real estate projects for 40 years

Bopro, founded in 1984, is the life's work and daily passion of a team around Peter Garré (60). Starting out with a solid contractor, Peter soon noticed that many real estate projects struggle to achieve the defined objectives, despite good intentions from the initiator, designer and contractor.

Sustainable agenda no longer up for debate

Bopro pioneered since 1990 in project management with a focus on efficiency and quality improvement. From the 2000s, Bopro integrated sustainability and transition thinking into its own DNA, not for show but as a fully-fledged business case. Because many building projects only hesitantly went for sustainability, Bopro also stepped into project development itself. This often takes place via partnerships.

Bopro is neither a designer nor a contractor. The team of 100 employees and freelancers is active both in Belgium - where it integrates sustainability in its project management for third parties and its own project developments - and in other European countries, with certification and sustainability of the built environment. Bopro operates from a renovated historic building right in Ghent city centre. The building was already CO2 neutral 15 years ago (BREEAM* Excellence label).

The construction and use of real estate are responsible for about a third of CO2 emissions. Working towards sustainability is an objective that can no longer be questioned and underpins healthy profitability especially in the long term. Smart real estate projects, combined with a focus on mobility in an urban environment can solve many of our sustainability problems. Making buildings more sustainable is best done in a community-based approach.

From strategy to implementation

Bopro works in a b2b environment to make companies with real estate on their balance sheet more sustainable, whether real estate specialists or other companies. Sustainability awareness is particularly high in logistics projects and office development. The residential and healthcare sectors still have a way to go.

Opting for a sustainability strategy is a good start, but only then does the real work begin: adapting processes, setting and measuring KPIs, drawing up improvement plans... As a supervisor of sustainable real estate projects, Bopro is acutely aware of the impact of the objectives and the feasibility of the KPIs.

Bopro monitors classic barriers that companies encounter in real estate projects, such as quality, budget and realisation time. A budget overrun can be the result of rising costs for the implementers but also because the scope of the project has not been sufficiently sharply defined, as a result of which the client has to make changes himself during the process. This is where our greatest added value lies.

A typical aspect of Bopro's approach is the approach based on the total cost of ownership. This takes into account the entire lifecycle of the project, and this cost may not exceed that of a classic project approach.

Our methodology is based on the use of tools, based on international standards and considering the most recent regulations (including EU taxonomy). Bopro brought the BREEAM standard to the Belgian market and is also market leader for assessments in that area. Less obvious than it seems because in our country the various authorities - depending on the region - each use a different method to measure how sustainable someone builds.

Roadmap to the future

With an annual renovation rate of 1.5 to 2%, real estate sustainability in our cities is proceeding very slowly. An integral renovation by 2050 will be impossible at that pace. There is a need for more resources, materials and budgets but, above all, for drastic deregulation. Challenge companies to higher ambitions within a positive business case instead of betting on regulation.

Further digitisation of the sector and more standardisation will facilitate more efficient and low-cost large-scale renovation. Companies will also (have to) cooperate much more, including around space usage. This is why Bopro is also asked to help think about the business parks of tomorrow, patterns that we are already applying to the development of Blue Gate Anterp.

Because from 2026 companies are obliged to report on objectives and realisations regarding CO2, energy, water... banks are already looking much more critically at credit files. We help companies respond to this new reality.
Bopro is ready to co-lead the entire transition process and has the ambition to realise projects throughout Europe under its own brand. We are already active in all European countries with a branch in Paris and we are exploring the possibilities of opening our own branches in other countries.

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