With the reduction of carbon deadlines looming and regulations becoming more tightened, a greater number of businesses are adopting technologies that are evolving faster so as to measure, monitor, as well as manage their respective emissions, and also guide decisions pertaining to future sustainability.
It is well worth noting that sustainability tech will account for the highest share when it comes to elevated tech budgets for both occupiers as well as investors in the next 3 years, as per a JLL survey pertaining to 1000 companies. More than two-thirds of the occupiers mention that technology helps them to manage as well as report on sustainability growth, which is a top budget priority.
Internationally, 45% of the occupiers as well as 62% of the investors surveyed plans so as to adopt energy as well as emissions management tech in the year to come. Another 62% of the investors happen to be interested in technology that goes on to support monitoring of sustainability and also reporting while at the same time evaluating climate risk when it comes to portfolio planning in an area that’s emerging.
As per the vice president of Technology Platforms – Smart and Sustainable Buildings, JLL, tech happens to be a critical enabler for organizations to better gauge how they are doing when it comes to their net-zero objectives by way of flagging off risks in the portfolio so as to track their day-to-day functioning.
There happens to be now a mature market to address organizations sustainability reporting as well as management needs and also ensure that they comply with incoming public disclosure regulations like the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act in California.
Executing Tech Successfully
As more businesses go on to invest in sustainability technology across the real estate sector, they are also grappling with the practicalities in terms of integrating it. One hurdle to the execution of these technologies is that numerous businesses lack a concrete pathway. As per Global Research Associate Yuehan Wang from JLL’s real estate tech, successfully integrating these technologies in terms of real estate happens to be a challenge in every sector. Even big companies may lack a technology strategy that’s feasible and that addresses how to make decisions pertaining to procurement, make sure the tech is accurately used by the employees, and at the same time scale it throughout the portfolio.
The number of organizations making use of the data science as well as modeling tools that are used to evaluate occupancy, usage of energy, and also financial costs across locations and buildings, for instance, rose by 14% and went up to 40% between 2020 and 2023, shows the JLL survey. That said, a lack of data that’s standardized across smart building systems remains a stumbling block for numerous businesses.
To get exact insights about the carbon footprint of real estate, companies have to merge information from numerous systems, right from HVAC- heating, ventilation, and cooling to waste management. That said, these systems often happen to be soiled, thereby making it a challenge for data integration, while organizations may lack the tools or even expertise to take up and analyse building the data in an effective way.
Ravichandar says that the hardest issue for real estate to overcome happens to be the many data silos that ought to be integrated for buildings to function efficiently, specifically when some buildings may be around 60 years old with systems that are outdated.
Driving value through tech investments
Organizations might make up the skillset gaps by raising collaborations with external collaborators so as to deliver their tech vision, a strategy that can be adopted by more than 60% of the respondents to the JLL survey.
However, to drive value from sustainability technology investments, organizations need to clarify their aim and how they are planning to deliver in terms of their targets, as per Wang.
She adds that businesses must define what they want to achieve with sustainability tech, set standards for success, and also gauge what products on the market happen to be best suited for their operations as well as their objectives.
Training also happens to be paramount to make sure that different teams make the right use and also go on to benefit from sustainability technology.
Ravichandar says that sustainability tech ought to reach all right from the broiler room to the boardroom. For instance, the C-suite execs will aim for net zero progress while the landlords concentrate on tenant satisfaction, and the facilities team would want more effective day-to-day functioning. For organizations that go on to get it right, there happen to be adequate boons to functional cost as well as environmental impact.
Employing Hank, JLL’s AI-enabled platform that dynamically optimizes HVAC systems on the basis of real-time user needs, a prominent UK investment management firm went on to achieve an RoI of 708% and curtail its energy use by 59% within the 11600 sq m of office space. This went on to decrease carbon emissions by almost 500 metric tons per year.
Yet another financial services company ran a data evaluation to identify the initiatives pertaining to energy savings, using data visualization for the support of clear reporting as well as better decision-making. These measures went on to contribute to savings of just over $664,000 in a single building that was flagged as having high energy consumption. Such measures can go on to bring more benefits via areas like tenant well-being. According to Wang, sustainability isn’t standalone, and optimizing a building also goes on to impact the employee experience as well as workforce health and well-being, building opportunities for business establishments to align numerous corporate aims when they go on to invest in sustainability.
AIs Role
As of now, AI happens to be in an infancy stage in the real estate spectrum; however, as it continues to evolve, it will indeed go on to play a major role in terms of tackling the sizable real estate carbon footprint. Generative AI could very well go on to catalyze sustainability tech integration into buildings as well as operational workflows, for instance, by making the tech more accessible via a user-friendly interface that would aid people in gauging and also engaging with the data insights.
This could also speed up the critical smart building transformation that goes on to underpin more sustainable real estate. Wang says that in the recent years that have gone by, building owners have been experimenting with sensors as well as digital infrastructure and other smart tech. AI capacities could also bring out the tipping point by making it pretty easier and more efficient when it comes to tapping into the benefits of such technologies.
This will in-turn go on to have big implications for the speed and scope of decarbonization in real estate. As per Ravichandar, the technology is quite simply core to real estate’s decarbonization. The technology of today already happens to be making a difference; however, as it develops and also becomes integral to how businesses operate, it will go on to lower the emissions of real estate on a macro scale.
The above piece is an extract of the survey done by JLL.
