Economics for sustainability: Impacts on the Real Estate Appraisal and Economic Evaluation of Projects

The aim of this piece of work is to present the recent developments of the discipline of Real Estate Appraisal and Economic Evaluation of Projects in relation to Sustainable Architecture and its design. The focus is on the principles borrowed from economics and, in particular, on the transition from a linear to a circular thinking and the related impacts on estimative theories and practices. Starting from the urgency of the underlying problems, Life Cycle Thinking is recalled within which the theories of the Green Economy, the Circular Economy and, recently, the Helical Economy are developed. The reasoning then recalls some passages of disciplinary evolution to include the public, environmental and social dimension. A methodological survey follows with attention to the recent – and now almost consolidated – approaches for projects evaluation and market analysis, attributable to international energy-environmental policies. In terms of the evaluation of new construction projects or retrofitting existing assets, the transition from the financial perspective, in terms of Linear Economy, to the perspective of economic-energy-environmental sustainability, from a Circular Economy perspective, is a central point. From the point of view of market analysis, the importance of exploring the impact of sustainable architecture on the values and dynamics of supply and demand is underlined. The results of the work show that the use of life cycle valuation is essential for the reuse of resources, but also for the containment of their consumption in the production phase. The use of tools capable of jointly analyzing energy and costs could guide decision-making processes between different design options, encouraging conversion and efficiency strategies, even in contexts of weak sustainability.