Oxford Sustainable, an Estonian company, successfully received the final payment for its Black Sea based sustainable project in December 2021. The project had a total size of 120,000 m2, comprising residential, commercial and biomass energy. Completely built, the project has a Gross Development Value of around 220 million Euros at current prices.

“We are satisfied that our final Black Sea real estate and energy journey ends with this significant project.” said Hadley Barrett, CEO of Oxford Sustainable.

Oxford Sustainable has been developing sustainable real estate and energy projects for nearly 20 years and as well as advising some of the largest developers in the Baltic region, has achieved a quiet reputation of real estate development excellence in the markets in which it is operating..

Previously, Oxford Sustainable has been involved in other renewable energy projects in Romania including large scale wind turbine development and also growing biomass crops. These crops are woody annual plants, which act as fuel for biomass energy units. The crops grow each year and on burning the fuel, carbon can be extracted from the air, reducing carbon pollution by up to 200,000 tonnes each year, for a 25MW biomass unit. At the same time, the ash can be used to replenish the earth, creating a natural ecosystem cycle, of growth, energy creation, removal of carbon and giving back to the soil.

“We use crops which grow in marginal areas, therefore meaning we do not need to displace food production”, explained Barrett. “It is important to show that real estate and energy can be developed both profitably and in a sustainable way and these two goals do not conflict.”

It is positive to see a responsible Estonian company achieving its goals in the international markets. Perhaps this approach could become a future model for real estate development.