Perceptions of a just transition in the built environment: Research Report

This research report, Perceptions of a Just Transition in the Built Environment, was produced by Demos Helsinki and 89up and commissioned by the Laudes Foundation. It focuses on public perceptions and narratives around shifting Europe’s built environment toward climate-positive outcomes, with attention to implications for housing, renovation, and social equity. The report lists Theo Cox, Jack Beckett, Julie Perrault, and Ben Walker as authors and identifies Demos Helsinki as publisher, with Laudes Foundation and 89up described as part of the publishing consortium.

The stated objective was to review perceptions of narratives about a “just transition” to net zero in the built environment across Europe and to develop narrative guidance, key messages, proof points, and calls to action for partners, industry leaders, and policymakers. The work combined stakeholder engagement (“inside view”), media and social listening (“outside view”), and field testing of narratives through polling. The report describes five phases spanning stakeholder interviews and workshops, multi-language media/social analysis, narrative development, and testing with an expert working group.

The report frames the built environment as a major climate and social-policy arena, citing that buildings account for nearly 40% of carbon emissions (contrasted with 16% for transport in the report’s summary material). It also presents a large dataset of European perceptions built from media/social listening and a major cross-country poll. The polling is described as one of the largest of its kind on the topic, surveying 20,229 people across 10 European countries: Czechia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

A central output is the development and testing of three narrative frames. The Pragmatic narrative emphasises incremental, “common sense” improvements—fixing and upgrading existing buildings, improving energy performance, and positioning change as practical and incentivised. The Futurist narrative argues for broad systems change enabled by technology and “smart cities,” highlighting electrification, insulation, new materials, and net-zero homes. The Insecurity narrative foregrounds instability in everyday life—housing affordability pressures, uneven comfort and health, and energy vulnerability—linking climate action to security, fairness, and a “new deal” for buildings.

The report distinguishes between how agreeable a narrative is and how much it shifts respondents’ answers compared with a control group. When prompted, respondents were more likely to agree with the Pragmatic narrative than the other narratives; the report states that 73% of respondents across Europe who read the Pragmatic narrative agreed with it, compared with 63% and 65% agreement with the Futurist and Insecurity narratives. However, the Insecurity narrative is described as the most influential overall, being the most influential narrative in 7 of the 10 surveyed countries (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Sweden) and resonating particularly strongly with tenants and people aged 18–40.

The media and social analysis highlights which built-environment topics gain attention and engagement across languages and contexts. The report notes 78.6K mentions in news articles about decarbonising and transitioning the built environment compared with 215K mentions about decarbonising transport systems, positioning building decarbonisation as facing an “uphill challenge” for mainstream recognition. It also documents polarisation patterns: heat pumps and gas boiler phase-outs, retrofitting, and “15-minute cities” appear as recurrent themes, with “15-minute cities” described as becoming a culture-war flashpoint in some contexts.

Beyond summarising results, the report is designed as a communications and advocacy resource, including country and audience profiles, a communications manual section, and guidance on messengers and framing. It identifies tensions such as social justice versus net zero, perceptions of imposition versus agency, cost concerns, and distrust in institutions. Overall, it positions narrative strategy as a lever for building broader support for policy and investment decisions that affect Europe’s housing stock, renovation pathways, and the transition to lower-emission buildings.