Skip to main contentSkip to Xpert Chatbot

CISL: Sustainable Real Estate: Creating a Better Built Environment

Discover how you can respond to challenges facing sustainability in the built environment to leverage industry opportunities.

Discover how you can respond to challenges facing sustainability in the built environment to leverage industry opportunities.

...
This course is offered by , an edX partner
8 weeks
8–10 hours per week
Starts Apr 16, 2025
Enroll by Apr 22, 2025
Instructor-paced
Instructor-led on a course schedule

Get more information

Want to know more? Enter your information to learn more about this course from GetSmarter (an edX partner).

Get more information

Want to know more? Enter your information to learn more about this course from GetSmarter (an edX partner).

8 weeks
8–10 hours per week
Starts Apr 16, 2025
Enroll by Apr 22, 2025
Instructor-paced
Instructor-led on a course schedule

About this Course

Buildings produce a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and are one of the main consumers of energy in the world.1 The real estate sector plays an undeniable role in the climate emergency and needs to be reimagined if we want a sustainable future.

On the Sustainable Real Estate: Creating a Better Built Environment online short course, you’ll learn how to find opportunities within sustainability challenges in the built environment. Designed by expert faculty from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), the course addresses and analyzes the ecological, social, and governance aspects of real estate. With this overview of industry trends and risks, you’ll examine how sustainable real estate can contribute to a more resilient and inclusive society, and positively impact communities. Towards the end of this eight-week course, you’ll develop a personal action plan to deliver a sustainable outcome in your own built environment context. This strategy will help you realize the role you and your organization can play in improving your own supply chains, as well as the vast real estate network.

1 World Economic Forum (Jan, 2020).

This course is for professionals who want to understand the sustainability challenges facing the real estate sector, and want the knowledge and insights to implement resilient measures to address these challenges. Real estate developers, entrepreneurs, city planners, architects, engineers, and other built environment professionals will learn about the latest planning and design considerations, as well as opportunities for sustainable development. Public sector professionals will have the opportunity to study the impact of sustainability on society, systems, and the broader built environment, and explore solutions to potential challenges. Investment professionals will also gain value from the course, as they realize the impact of climate change on real estate investments, and the value behind delivering a sustainable built environment.

Course curriculum

Skip Course curriculum

Understand your role in developing a sustainable real estate sector as you work through the weekly modules of this online short course.

Orientation module: Welcome to your Online Campus

Module 1: Real estate sector challenges and opportunities

Module 2: Frameworks and objectives for a sustainable real estate sector

Module 3: Systems thinking for resilience

Module 4: Redefining the business value for sustainable real estate

Module 5: Design and procurement for sustainable built environment

Module 6: Sustainable operation of the built environment

Module 7: Developing a strategy and encouraging action

Module 8: Maximising your influence and impact

About the certificate

Learn about sustainable practices in the real estate industry and earn an official certificate of completion from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Assessment is continuous and based on a series of practical assignments completed online. In order to be issued with your digital certificate, you’ll need to meet the requirements outlined in the course handbook. The handbook will be made available to you as soon as you begin the course.

Your certificate will be issued in your legal name and sent to you digitally upon successful completion of the program, as per the stipulated requirements.

Some facts about the subject

36%

The percentage of CO2 emissions that the real estate sector must reduce by 2030, in order to stay within the 2°C threshold.

RICS (Mar, 2019).

73%

The percentage of greenhouse gas emissions that can be reduced in the non-residential sector, if buildings are renovated to lower their energy usage by 40% before 2030.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2020).

Why choose GetSmarter?

GetSmarter, an edX partner, delivers career-relevant, fully supported, and expert-led online courses from the world's leading universities and institutions. As an online learning expert with over 15 years' experience, GetSmarter leverages long-standing expertise in market research, data analysis, and business insights to ensure that you gain the skills critical to career growth.