Chongbang is a real-estate company born from an expertise in place-making and innovative urban renewal projects. Over the past two decades, Chongbang’s projects have served to revitalize neighborhoods, introducing human-scale streetscapes via new construction and historic building rejuvenation. Today, Chongbang is taking a leadership role in lowering emissions from embodied carbon in real-estate by studying the reduction benefits of urban renewal projects.

Embodied carbon in real-estate is defined as the greenhouse gas emissions from the construction, maintenance, disassembly and disposal of buildings. This includes the greenhouse gas emissions from the sourcing, transportation and transformation of raw materials into construction products. Embodied carbon accounts for 43 to 56% of all emissions in real-estate.

The stages in the life of a project that include the sourcing of raw materials through to the end of construction are referred to as A1-A5. Greenhouse gasses from these stages represent 90-95% of all embodied carbon emissions in projects.

Setting the Industry Standard with RESET Certification

Image Above: Life Hub @ Anting 2 by Chongbang Group

When Chongbang first set out to measure the embodied carbon emissions of one of their latest projects - Life Hub at Anting 2 - they found large gaps in the industry data required to calculate emissions. Chongbang then began a process to fill data gaps specific to their area of focus. Having started construction in 2020 and aiming for completion in mid 2023, the project has undergone carbon footprint assessments at different stages of design and construction. To date, the embodied carbon footprint of Life Hub @ Anting 2 from stages A1-A5 is 1082 kg of CO2 equivalent per square meter, as per the RESET Standard. The carbon emissions are expected to reduce once the final quantities of construction materials are factored in and the uncertainty associated with these quantities is removed.

Image Above: Life Hub @ Bund Central by Chongbang Group

Following closely behind in terms of construction, another project by Chongbang - Life Hub @ Bund Central - has been building off the same process and aiming for completion in mid 2024. Having benefited from an increase in data quality, the embodied carbon from stages A1-A5 is currently 886 kg of CO2 equivalent per square meter. Both projects are of the same typology and in the same region.

The carbon emissions of this project are also expected to reduce once the final quantities of construction materials are factored in.

Image Above: Certificates issued by RESET

Having followed the RESET Standard for Embodied Carbon and undergone external verification by GIGA, Life Hub @ Anting 2 and Life Hub @ Bund Central are the world’s first projects to obtain RESET Embodied Carbon certification for Core & Shell.

These projects, their process and the resulting certification not only show Chongbang’s commitment to understanding and lowering emissions from construction, they also create an externally verified baseline for future Chongbang projects and the industry. The results also provide a point of comparison for a completely different type of project that is core to the Group’s expertise.

Image Above: The Inlet - Core to the Group’s expertise

Going back to its roots, Chongbang has recently completed a historic building and neighborhood rejuvenation project, using it as an opportunity to study embodied carbon from existing building retrofit vs. new construction. Read more here.

Key RESET Data

Life Hub @ Bund Central
Typology: Mixed-Use Commercial, Tower and Podium
Type: New Construction, Core & Shell
Total Gross Floor Area: 264,124 m2
SSR (Superstructure to Substructure Ratio): 1.85
Stage: Construction
Targeted Completion: Mid 2024
RESET Embodied Carbon Scope: Structure & Skin
Embodied Carbon Result (A1-A5): 886 kgCO₂e/m²
RESET Accredited Professional: Rick Yin
Expert Consulting Company: WSP
RESET Auditors: Raefer Wallis, Zhou Lingling
Status: Certified.

Life Hub @ Anting 2
Typology: Mixed-Use Commercial, Tower and Podium
Type: New Construction, Core & Shell
Total Gross Floor Area: 190,562 m2
SSR (Superstructure to Substructure Ratio): 2.09
Stage: Construction
Targeted Completion: Mid 2023
RESET Embodied Carbon Scope: Structure & Skin
Embodied Carbon Result (A1-A5): 1081.6 kgCO₂e/m²
RESET Accredited Professional: Jiao Yang
Expert Consulting Company: Tianhua
RESET Auditors: Raefer Wallis, Zhou Lingling
Status: Certified.

SSR = Superstructure to Substructure Ration (the above ground area in square meters divided by the below ground area). To be comparable, buildings of the same typology and region also need to have a similar SSR, or should compare superstructure and substructure separately.

About Chongbang

Founded in 2003, Chongbang is an investor, owner, developer, manager and operator of retail-anchored mixed-use complexes in Shanghai and its neighboring cities. Chongbang’s management team consists of senior professionals with domain expertise in project investment, development, marketing, management and operation. The team is guided by a deep understanding of the dynamic consumer demographics and culture in China, and a long-term commitment to the successful social, economic and environmental revitalization of the communities it serves. As a result, Chongbang’s projects often play a pivotal role in the city’s urban regeneration.

Flagship properties developed by Chongbang Group are regional landmarks and designated heritage sites with a measured and vetted embodied carbon footprint.

About RESET®

RESET® is a data standard, accompanied by a set of assessment tools, created and managed by GIGA to develop actionable, long term strategies towards health and sustainability for the built environment. RESET focuses on creating a structure around data and analytics to generate opportunities for improvement and optimizations by combining the development of continuous monitoring and cloud software to increase the visibility of health and sustainability data in the built environment.

For more information about RESET, please visit: https://www.reset.build/