Trends & Expectations for 2019 – Siemens Building Technologies
Input from Agustin Garcia del Castillo, Business Development Manager Real Estate and Sustainability Manager for Siemens Building Technologies. At Siemens Building Technologies, we’re raising the bar on sustainability. We are deeply committed to our environment, society at-large, and responsible business practices. We are taking action to reduce climate impacts across our entire value chain and […]
Climate resilience and the search for ‘zero carbon’: Trends and expectations for sustainable real assets in 2019
The challenge of improving the sustainability of real estate portfolios is not new. However, the increasing pressure from investors, certification bodies and other industry drivers is creating a wave of change toward portfolios that can demonstrate increasingly resilient and efficient asset performance. Furthermore, a growing desire for occupants to have real time access to building […]
Smart buildings and smart cities have been at the forefront of sustainability discussions for much of the past decade, but they have always felt like a vision of the future. During this time we’ve increased the amount of technology in our buildings, and have now arrived at the time of The Internet of Things where […]
What to expect from China’s real estate industry in 2019
ESG as a global vision has enhanced compliance and reporting standards Sustainability is not rocket science yet the rapid global sustainability demand has encouraged overwhelmingly stringent laws and regulations from governments and investment institutions in 2018. The bell rings again for companies to step up their ESG disclosures in 2019. According to the EY Global […]
A people-centric approach helps real estate companies better manage sustainability risks
Today, environmental issues are becoming evidently more important to business, regardless of industry and location. While a worldwide consensus is emerging that we can no longer afford to wait, Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish teenager, reminded us that “if it continues the way it is now, we are never going to achieve anything” in her […]
Trends and expectations for sustainable real assets in 2019: Taking Climate Resilience Mainstream
Climate resilience has emerged as a key field of practice; however, a concern is that thinking and knowledge of this topic, and most importantly actions are not progressing quickly or purposefully enough for real estate managers to adequately prepare their assets for the potentially perilous shocks and stresses caused by climate change. Resilience is becoming […]
2018 was an exciting year for sustainable real assets, as more assets were required to participate in benchmarking or disclosure. As a result, we shifted from talking about regulatory and compliance obligations and costs to sustainability as a value-add driver of cashflow and asset values. The federal government’s retreat only increased the focus on sustainable […]
Transparency, Truth & Totality: 2019 Trends & Expectations for Sustainable Real Assets
The year ahead is an exciting time for the Real Asset universe and, guess what, the pace of change is accelerating. Against an ever-changing global political backdrop, new and evolving investment models including the rise of BTR and the imminent challenge of Brexit, the real estate market must continue to yield consistent returns for investors. […]
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent report gave a stark warning that current pledges from governments are not enough to avoid dangerous levels of climate change. In order to avoid this, we need to be aiming for a maximum of 1.5 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels. Current INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) to 2030 mean that […]
How to have your company thrive in 2019 and beyond
We are living in a different era. Data is the new oil and companies are now increasingly awash in information being piped in from the internet, from email, from internal accounting, asset management, tenants, vendors, partners and other stakeholders in your business. That doesn’t even begin to consider the impending deluge of data that sensors […]
The Role of Data in Reducing Risk and Driving Performance
In the fast-paced, seemingly ever-changing landscape of the real estate industry, in an effort to gain a competitive edge, organizations are continually striving to adopt the latest systems and practices. There is also an increasing focus on embedding environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters at the core of business, to ensure that all development is sustainable. […]
When discussing setting sustainability goals among our team, many clients simply want “the answer.” There are tools that allow you to provide key information and produce a numerical target. You could take that number and run with it. But you shouldn’t. Understand your motivation Setting sustainability goals can and should be more nuanced than that. […]
Real Estate Sustainability Performance (& Skydiving)
Skydiving can make you anxious. You may be reluctant to try it, you may not even entertain the thought of doing it. You’d certainly want to know that safety has been thoroughly planned, that you’re dealing with an experienced crew and a plane that actually works. Once you do it though, you’ll probably love it, […]
Three years ago, a major target was set on a global scale. During the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally-binding climate deal. The overarching agreement set out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to […]
What’s the purpose of knowing how much energy you are wasting if you can’t do anything about it?
Peter Drucker wrote, “What gets measured gets managed.” Thanks to advances and cost declines in sensor and communication technology, facilities are collecting more measurements than ever before. But to what end goal? Minimizing energy consumption and achieving performance targets has to respect the comfort of the tenants – turning out the lights while your $100k+/yr […]
If you attended one of the 2018 GRESB Results events, you probably discovered the three key elements of sustainable assets: efficiency, health & well-being, and resilience. While companies are increasingly addressing the issues of resilience and health and well-being in the built environment, efficiency is one of the most longstanding topics of the sustainable building […]
4 Key challenges and solutions to achieving carbon neutrality
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued a recent report stipulating that without drastic measures to cut carbon emissions, reduce energy use and remove carbon already in the atmosphere, we are “extremely unlikely” to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 1.5C.
Carbon Context: Achieving Clarity in Public Emission Disclosures
“Our company has reduced our emissions by 20%!” The frequency of carbon disclosure headlines such as this is only increasing as the real estate industry steps up its environmental initiatives.
