Tech: A Tool for Improved Sustainability in Real Estate

Featured article by Matt is Founder and CEO of Measurabl

While the real estate industry is notoriously resistant to change, it has not escaped the incredible technological changes now revolutionizing every aspect of society.

Across industries, there exists a strong relationship between environmentalism and technology; and now, in the era of real estate tech 4.0, disruptive technologies are having a huge impact on sustainability in real estate. As buyers and real estate investors hunt for eco-friendly properties, and turn a sharp eye towards sustainability metrics, this may be the perfect time for the real estate industry to embrace emerging tech. New technologies bring numerous new opportunities in real estate to improve sustainability efforts across the board.

Better Data Means Better Sustainability

As energy efficiency takes a higher priority across buyers and investors, property managers seek better and faster ways to gather, track, and report sustainability data. With the variety of metrics to monitor and the need for precision, the days of manually entering numbers into spreadsheets are quickly disappearing. In its place, the industry is embracing Software as a Service (SaaS), in the form of new tech platforms that help to automate workflow and reporting accuracy.

Technology is assisting in everything from collecting and recording sustainability metrics to actually helping property managers improve those metrics. In 2004, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) set a five-year goal of reducing the energy consumption in its real estate portfolio by 20%. That same year, the fund began tracking its environmental performance data, and implemented green building technology across its portfolio – this technology encompassed energy efficiency, water conservation, waste stream management, and indoor air quality. By actively working with investee companies, CalPERS exceeded its target and reported a 23% reduction in energy use by the end of 2009.

This success story began with the opportunity for CalPERS to track data using advanced tech; astute property owners know that regularly tracking metrics is the key to efficiency and progress. Software that provides real-time data on energy consumption can show you where you are – and where you need to go. Having this information at your fingertips helps you improve the energy and sustainability performance of your commercial real estate operation.

New tech has made sustainability reporting easier, with programs that guide property managers step-by-step through reports like GRESB, CDP, and GRI. Disruptive technologies are now available to help evaluate operational efficiency, renew green building certifications like LEED, and provide performance snapshots for investors.

These software solutions are increasingly becoming the norm, in what some call the “SaaS-ification” of real estate. From start to finish, technology can help you track various sustainability metrics, and make changes to improve them – giving you access to better data and therefore, better sustainability.

Large Scale Service

The classic real estate portfolio has long been a jigsaw puzzle made up of individual buildings and properties, each with its own budget, managerial team, and service provider. Because of this, it’s always been difficult for software companies in the real estate space to provide service any higher than a property level — resulting in traditionally high service costs and a lack of room to grow. The segregation of properties hinders our ability to advance technologies and implement better, more automated software.

Today, we see diversified fund managers and REITs taking on bigger real estate portfolios; essentially centralizing all of these individual jigsaw pieces into a complete picture, with one overseeing decision-maker. This consolidation means property managers are in need of one overall system to unite all of their pieces, allowing software to provide service on a much larger scale — at portfolio level — and with fewer costs. Disruptive tech in real estate is growing faster than ever before because new software companies can adapt and build their systems to service an entire organization, instead of just one property.

Real estate tech 4.0 offers systems that are faster and less costly to implement, designed to be user-friendly for real estate professionals managing numerous properties. With low barriers to entry, and the opportunity to deploy at portfolio-level, it’s no wonder new tech is swiftly gaining momentum, putting pressure on the larger, more cumbersome traditional systems.

Connecting Your Systems

Real estate professionals use many different systems and software, and one of the biggest challenges they face is trying to keep those systems in sync with each other. The era of real estate tech 4.0 is changing all of that. Larger software providers have traditionally kept their programs “siloed,” or closed off to interacting with other programs. The traditional idea was that if your software doesn’t play well with others, consumers will stick to using only yours.

This idea has proven inaccurate and troublesome, as real estate professionals adopt new tech only to find that their new programs can’t integrate with their existing programs. As disruptive technologies in real estate become more commonplace, larger software providers realize they can’t stay competitive in the space if they aren’t compatible and cooperative with newer systems.

Disruptive technologies have gained enough momentum to force larger providers to integrate with newer programs, and this new trend of compatibility will only grow as disruptive tech permeates the market.

Savvy real estate professionals and developers know that real estate tech 4.0 is not a fad or a flash in the pan. Real estate professionals are focusing on making sustainability a priority, and disruptive tech is helping them get there. By streamlining data collection and reporting, scaling up to serve large, centralized portfolios, and integrating easily with both new and existing technologies, real estate tech is changing the space for good. Embracing new technologies and platforms makes it easier than ever to design, operate, and collect data on sustainable properties.

Matt Ellis is Founder and CEO of Measurabl, a sofware company that makes it possible for any company to collect, report and act upon sustainability data, powering the global market in non-financial information. Before Measurabl Matt spent five years with CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services company, where he began his career as a real estate broker. Matt went on to lead CBRE’s Sustainability Practice Group in the Western US, implement its industry-first global carbon neutrality program, and serve as the company’s first Director of Sustainability Solutions and youngest member of its Global Sustainability Steering Committee. Matt has expertise in sustainability reporting, corporate sustainability strategy, institutional and corporate real estate, carbon accounting, and green building. He is an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow and New Leaders Council Fellow.