We all have a roof over our heads and a bed to sleep in if we’re lucky. And if we’re unlucky- which most of us with homes actually are- we spend a significant portion of our monthly budget on housing. This is only increasing: the size of houses, the cost of rents, and mortgages, especially in highly sought-after cities. As a result, many people are left with less budget for high-quality regenerative food. This situation isn’t sustainable, economically or socially, especially given that the building sector is incredibly wasteful and consumes vast amounts of fossil fuels.

Straight from Copenhagen, a conversation with Rasmus Nørgaard, co-founder of Urban Partners, Home.Earth and Nordhus , with over two decades of experience in real estate, pushing the boundaries of sustainability within conventional systems. With Rasmus we dive deep into the world of real estate. Not “real assets” (although buildings are assets), but the actual built environment: homes, concrete, steel, and hopefully a lot more wood in the future. The built environment is one of the three major sectors that needs a complete systems change, alongside with agrifood and energy.

So, what can we in the regenerative agriculture and food sector learn from one of the pioneers of sustainable real estate? Rasmus is building a much more holistic (dare we say Horizon 3?) for-profit company that is reinventing real estate from the ground up. And he’s convinced: long-term real estate companies like this will prove more profitable, even financially, than those driven by short-term thinking. Yes, we talk a lot about buildings and homes, but there are so many overlaps with agriculture and food. Let’s face it: soil is a real asset in investment terms.
We ought to learn from the best in real estate to bring more aligned capital into the ground fast.
In the end, it’s all about aligning incentives and creating the right structures to build things that last.