Students’ perceptions of Education for Sustainable Real Estate Development in Brazil

1. Presentation prepared for the 9th ERES Education Seminar Bratislava – Slovak Republic | December 6th-7th, 2013 Students’ perceptions of Education for Sustainable Real Estate Development in Brazil Rogerio Santovito - rogerio.santovito@usp.br Escola Politécnica, University of São Paulo IRE|BS International Real Estate Business School, University of Regensburg Kompetenzzentrum für Nachhaltigkeit in der Immobilienwirtschaft

2. Contextoftheresearch • Although the sustainability theme in general has been somehow incorporated into the curriculum of higher education courses, increasingly the real estate industry recognizes Sustainable Development as an issue of mandatory competence for future professionals. • The challenge of sustainability to real estate education: what employers will require. Sayce, Lewis and Ellison, 2005 • RICS Sustainability as a mandatory competence for APC (2011) • RICS supporting UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) July 2013 • This would favor the incorporation of sustainability aspects into curricula of higher education courses, either through specific self-contained modules, or by updating the course curricula and incorporating interdisciplinary sustainability issues.

3. Contextoftheresearch • The concept of Sustainable Development is wide-ranging and lacks a theoretical consensus. Often, therefore, there is the adoption in courses of several complementary definitions, as well as environmental practices already established prior to the emergence of this discussion. • “…programmecore knowledge and competencies must be defined with reference to market needs.” D’Arcy & Taltavull, 2009 • The marketfor real estate graduates in Europe, the evolution of real estate education in business school and built environment contexts, accreditation issues, developing best practice, life-long learning, defining core real estate knowledge, minimum education requirements, new learning technologies and their application to real estate. • Real estate education in Europe: some perspectives on a decade of rapid changeJournal of European Real Estate Research Vol. 2 No. 1, 2009 pp. 69-78

4. Research objectives • This research addresses the issue of Sustainable Development Education, in an effort to enable a better integration of sustainability topics into several MBA-level courses @EPUSP-Brazil. • To get evidence on students' perceptions of education for Sustainable Real Estate Development; how they see the involvement of real estate companies into Sustainable Development practices, and their opinions/preferences about the delivery formats of educational content. • Early step: pilot study finished, ready to proceed with the full survey.

5. Surveymethodology • Biasutti and Surian (2012), The Students’ Survey of Education for Sustainable Development Competencies: A Comparison Among Faculties. • Rieckmann (2011), Key Competencies for a Sustainable Development of the World Society. • Hayles (2010), can Greening the Curriculum Influence Student’s Perceptions and Awareness of Sustainability • Study of the documentation from the original researches • Questionnaire design • Pilot study conducted

6. Questionnaire design In general terms, the perceptions and opinions that would be captured by the questionnaire were ordered using: Demographics about respondents; Personal perceptions about SD and their professional practices; Involvement of real estate companies and market influences over SD; Competencies for Sustainable Development; Educational content / delivery format

7. Questionnaire design Demographics about respondents Age group (generations) > 65 y. 45 ~ 64 y.o. 35 ~ 44 y.o. 25 ~ 34 y.o. < 25 y.o. Which category best describes your company? (Construction Mgnt., Property Company - Shopping / Retail, Property company – Offices, Urban Planning, Engineering projects Architecting, facility Management, developer, etc (25 options). What is the approximate % between domestic and multinational clients. Your position level at current organization: S. T. O.

8. Questionnaire design Personal perceptions about SD and their professional practices What is your definition for the concept of Sustainable Development? (open text) To what extent the concept of Sustainable Development has affected your current professional activity? (Likert 5pt) To what extent the concept of sustainable development has affected the business of the company for which you work, in terms of changes of the competencies needed for professional performance? (Likert 5pt)

9. Questionnaire design Involvement of real estate companies and market influences over Sustainable Development In your opinion, to what extent medium and large real estate development companies have awareness of their ability to shape the urban landscape and to promote sustainable development? (Likert 5pt) In your opinion, to what extent medium and large real estate development companies seek solutions to their real estate products taking into account aspects of sustainability? (Likert 5pt) What do you consider to be the main drivers for your organization to take sustainability into consideration in the services you offer? Legislation Market transformation Better informed clients Corporate Social responsibility Investor requirements Occupier requirements Other (specify)

10. Questionnaire design Competencies for Sustainable Development To what extent do you think the following competencies for Sustainable Development are relevant to your specific professional practice? (Likert 5pt) 1. Competency for systemic thinking and handling of complexity 2. Competency for anticipatory thinking 3. Competency for critical thinking 4. Competency for acting fairly and ecologically 5. Competency for cooperation in (heterogeneous) groups 6. Competency for participation 7. Competency for empathy and change of perspective 8. Competency for interdisciplinary work 9. Competency for communication and use of media 10. Competency for planning and realizing innovative projects 11. Competency for evaluation 12. Competency for ambiguity and frustration tolerance In terms of professional requirements on graduates’ knowledge about sustainable development issues, to what extent do you expect this to change in next 2-5 years?

11. Questionnaire design • Educational content / delivery format • Sustainable Development is seen as interdisciplinary in nature. What is your preference about the way in which the topics of Sustainable Development should be discussed in MBA courses? • Distributed across different disciplines, with a closing module at the end. • Distributed across the disciplines • As an independent discipline/module • If you could spend 2 weeks in an international field trip experiencing Sustainable Real Estate Development practices, which cities or countries you'd prefer to visit?

12. Pilot Study Total Students: 617 Cleaned list (excluded failed and dropouts):521 Pilot sample ~10% (53)

13. Pilot Study Period analyzed: 5 years (2009-2013) Pilot does not allows for generalization of the results, but validates the use of the resultant (adjusted) questionnaire.

14. Final considerations • Comments for improving the questionnaire • International comparative research

15. Presentation prepared for the 9th ERES Education Seminar Bratislava – Slovak Republic | December 6th-7th, 2013 Students’ perceptions of Education for Sustainable Real Estate Development in Brazil Rogerio Santovito - rogerio.santovito@usp.br Escola Politécnica, University of São Paulo IRE|BS International Real Estate Business School, University of Regensburg Kompetenzzentrum für Nachhaltigkeit in der Immobilienwirtschaft