Renaturalisation can be an alternative to zero soil consumption
An amendment to the new Testo Unico delle Costruzioni is needed
2' min read
Key points
2' min read
When planning to realise a data centre or a logistics hub reclaiming an existing building is always preferable, but what if this is impossible? How to combine the needs of the market and the need to stop land consumption?
A solution could come from a small amendment to the proposed enabling act for the new Consolidated Text on Construction, presented on 26 March by MP Erica Mazzetti. "The new Consolidation Act represents a crucial challenge for the real estate sector," explains Guido Inzaghi, founder and managing partner of Studio Inzaghi, "particularly for asset classes such as data centres and logistics, where it is not possible to locate them on disused areas. The real novelty, however, is the European perspective of restoration, introduced by the Nature Restoration Law, the EU regulation approved in June 2024, which goes beyond urban regeneration".
Renaturalisation means restoring to their natural state unused or abandoned areas. "It is a fundamental tool for those uses, such as data centres and logistics, which sometimes require the use of virgin soil for infrastructural needs, for example in the vicinity of energy hubs or motorways," Inzaghi clarifies. "The zero balance in soil consumption, the declared objective of the Consolidated Text, risks being undermined by these needs.
The answer could therefore lie in an amendment to the text, making it provide - as an alternative to brownfield construction - for brownfields to be renaturalised, even if not in the same municipality, returning them to green spaces.
How to manage renaturalisation
.According to the lawyer, renaturation planning 'must be managed at least at provincial level, preferably regional or national, as required by the European regulation. It is unthinkable that small municipalities, perhaps without brownfield sites, can balance the consumption of virgin soil on their own. Some virtuous examples in the Milanese hinterland show that it is possible: in the face of the construction of a logistics centre, a disused area has been renaturalised. But these are still rare cases'.
