SUR Lab featured in Il Sole 24 Ore and Radiocor: measuring impacts to steer urban regeneration

SUR Lab contributed to Il Sole 24 Ore and Radiocor with an article examining the critical role of impact measurement in advancing sustainable urban regeneration. The article, titled “Measuring Impacts to Govern Urban Regeneration,” focuses on the need for robust, comparable metrics to assess environmental, social, and economic outcomes across projects.

Drawing on the Sustainable Urban Regeneration Atlas (SUR Atlas), developed by SUR Lab in collaboration with UN-Habitat, the article highlights evidence from over 60 international case studies across 29 countries. The analysis shows that environmental benefits emerge in 90% of projects, alongside strong social (86%) and economic (83%) impacts, with a significant share of interventions focused on brownfield redevelopment.

In the article, Tania Molteni, researcher at SUR Lab at Bocconi University, discusses the persistent lack of a shared urban-scale measurement framework and the implications this has for governance, investment decisions, and public-private collaboration. While existing certification systems provide partial guidance, they often overlook governance dimensions and fail to capture the full complexity of regeneration processes.

To address this gap, SUR Lab—within the MUSA project (PNRR, Spoke 1 on Urban Regeneration)—has developed the ESG Urban Track, an evaluation tool designed to assess both processes and impacts of urban regeneration initiatives through a comprehensive ESG lens. The tool aims to support decision-makers, investors, and public authorities in aligning projects with sustainability objectives and improving accountability.

This contribution reinforces the role of SUR Lab and MUSA in advancing evidence-based approaches to urban regeneration, promoting more transparent, comparable, and effective strategies at the city scale.

HERE is the full article: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/misurare-impatti-governare-rigenerazione-urbana-AIC7ERjC