Leveraging the Focus on the Occupant to Drive Sustainability in Real Estate

It is nearly impossible to talk about the real estate industry without mentioning the headline-grabbing disruptor, WeWork. The company is redefining the office experience at its hip centers of collaboration for startups and expanding its targets to support the more traditional corporate HQ landscape. WeWork offers month-to-month leases for technology-enabled, flexible workspaces that are upending the traditional real estate contracting paradigm. Will they remain the dominant name in the headlines, or will the big real estate incumbents simply pivot? Time will tell. What is undeniable is that the company’s influence is spreading to the major real estate players.

The Occupant Is Everything

A recent CRETECH article cited Rob Speyer, CEO of Tishman Speyer, who explained just what the focus on the occupant and the emerging power of space as a service means: “Our most important job is to serve the 250,000 people who work in our buildings each and every day. Instead of defining ourselves by the square feet we own, we will define ourselves by the quarter million people who use the square feet and how well we tend to them.”

Johnson Controls’ 2018 Energy Efficiency Indicator Survey found that 70% of respondents rate enhanced brand or reputation as a very or extremely important driver for investment in energy solutions. Greenhouse gas footprint reduction was the number one driver in both US and worldwide samples. 

A Foundation in Data

The recognition of the focus on people and the priorities of brand and sustainability can become a part of a unified technology investment strategy through intelligent building solutions. Here are a few ways these data-driven technologies can achieve the parallel corporate objectives throughout a building’s life cycle:

• As outlined in Guidehouse Insights' recent report, How BIM Adds Value to Intelligent Buildings, building information modeling (BIM) can be considered the first instance of the digital life of a building. The most transformative aspect of BIM is in the modeling and application of sophisticated new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and the interconnectivity of a wider range of assets that include city infrastructures, utility grids, and transportation networks. All can be coordinated holistically to provide value-added services across a wide swath of markets and constituents. 
  
• After handover and full occupancy, intelligent building analytics can ensure energy performance aligns with design parameters, manage occupant feedback to streamline operations and maintenance, and improve satisfaction, while also measuring energy use to meet sustainability objectives. 
  
• Connected lighting and other IoT-enabled technologies support building owner goals in older facilities. As the intelligent building technology ecosystem continues to expand and evolve, there are growing opportunities to enhance operations for occupant satisfaction that also deliver sustainability benefits.
  

Today’s real estate industry is facing the daunting reality of new business models, client pressures, and nontraditional competition. Investment in intelligent building solutions can deliver the experience enhancements today’s occupants expect alongside the energy savings and associated sustainability improvements that build the real estate owner’s brand.