Proptech in Sustainable Real Estate Development: The Nexus of ESG-led Future

Sudeep Srivastava November 2, 2023

says Niall Gaffney, CEO, IPUT

Real estate, along with being one of the most profitable sectors on a global scale, is also notoriously famous for contributing to pollution and environmental irritants. So much so that in 2022, it was found in research that real estate is responsible for over 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

While this has always been the scenario in this profit-first industry, COVID-19 brought a paradigm shift with a more concentrated focus on ESG and Proptech in sustainable real estate development.

ESG – Environmental, Social, and Governance Real Estate implies a new regulation where the sector acts in accordance with the three elements. Let us have a brief look at them.

Environmental – This element focuses on natural resources, climate change, recycling, pollution, and waste. Specific to real estate, it works around the development of buildings that will be measured against ‘green’ rating systems like BREEAM, WELL, LEED, and the NABERS UK, etc.
Social – This factor works around a real estate building’s impact on society and residents’ well-being. For example, building green spaces, frictionless access to the building, and support for local businesses like cafes or manpower-dependent businesses.
Governance – It consists of difficult-to-measure factors like reputation, diversity, and culture.

In order to keep up with these standards that are on the verge of becoming laws, real estate businesses are turning towards sustainable real estate solutions with the help of technology.

And this is where Proptech sustainability comes in.

Role of Proptech in Sustainable Real Estate Development

Proptech or property technology, with its cloud applications, real-time sensors, and data analysis, gives insights into energy usage, infrastructure failures, a dashboard to connect all the necessary stakeholders, and other features. All these elements allow developers to be on track with the ESG requirements and work on sustainable real estate practices right from the construction stage.

Let us look into the many facets of how proptech contributes to sustainable development in real estate.

Proptech Importance in Sustainable Real Estate Development

Lowering Energy Consumption

One of the primary areas where Proptech sustainability is prominent is energy consumption. For example, smart home technology enables homeowners to track and control their energy use through the automation of home systems like temperature control and lightning.

Having control of such equipment makes it possible for homeowners to lower their carbon footprint.

Streamlining Resource Management

Proptech software offers innovative solutions for optimizing resource usage in real estate. For example, a smart building management system can empower managers and property owners to track and manage waste, water, and air quality. Thus lowering the environmental impact and becoming one of the pivotal sustainable real estate development examples.

Powering Smart Urban Planning

Sustainable Real Estate Proptech software helps policymakers and urban planners create smart and sustainable cities. With the help of data analysis and artificial intelligence, these software offer them valuable insights into population density, urban dynamics, and smart infrastructure needs. This detailed information, in turn, enables planners to make critical decisions around the use of land, transport network, and resource allocation.

Promoting Accountability and Transparency

Proptech is powering accountability and transparency in real estate – two crucial factors for becoming a part of real estate sustainability trends.

Businesses are exploring ways to integrate blockchain in the sector to enable tamper-proof and safe property transactions. Moreover, they are investing in solutions that offer comprehensive data around energy performance and sustainability metrics in a way that the stakeholders can make informed decisions and align with the environmental goals.

Sustainable Property Maintenance

A well-implemented proptech software works in alignment with the building’s smart systems by gathering and analyzing building data and the condition of equipment and processes.

The software then transfers the data to a centrally managed tool where all the activities and performances are monitored.

An extension of this in the sustainable development of real estate can be seen in businesses investing in proactive maintenance software that runs on planned and preventive maintenance data to ensure that all assets are operating at top efficiency.

Tracking and Managing Water Usage and Air Quality

A key part of sustainable real estate practices lies in building a proptech solution that is integrated with multi-functional IoT sensors. It doesn’t just streamline optimal water management by tracking its consumption but also helps track other vitals like temperature, C02 levels, humidity, people’s presence, and barometric pressure.

A combination of these data points helps building managers get real-time notifications of when the decided metrics are off.

Sustainable-First Building Design and Development

It is impossible to talk about real estate sustainability trends without the mention of property design and development.

The industry standard that real estate businesses have started following around this practice is using BIM software.

It is a 3D design and modeling software that helps optimize designing for architecture, construction, and other projects by –

Helping make informed design decisions around building performance.
Digitizing the construction area by creating a system that connects information from construction to handover.
Managing the design and construction of piping, structures, and other cores under the building elements.
Improving the predictability, productivity, and profitability of process workflows.
Supporting the project delivery success with better design quality and collaboration.

Now that we have looked into the details of the role that is played by proptech in sustainable real estate development, let us give a brief look into the features that make it possible.

Pro-Sustainability Features of Proptech Software

For any software to truly achieve the benefits of sustainable real estate development, it is critical to have sufficient tracking and management facilities. Let us look at some of the top features that should be present in the examples of Proptech solution.

Must Have Features for Proptech to Ensure Sustainability in Real Estate

Energy Eefficiency Analytics

It must provide a solution to monitor and optimize energy consumption in real estate properties, helping users reduce their carbon footprint.

Sustainability Assessment

Another feature of sustainable real estate development could be offering assessments and ratings for properties based on their environmental impact, including factors like energy usage, water consumption, and waste management.

Green Building Certifications

Integrating data and resources related to green building certifications, such as LEED, BREEAM, or Green Globes can be another important feature. It helps businesses achieve the benefits of sustainable real estate development, leading to users being able to identify and achieve sustainable building standards.

Carbon Footprint Tracking

Allowing users to track and report on the carbon emissions associated with their properties and activities, helping them set reduction targets can be one of the key sustainable real estate development elements.

Social Impact Metrics

The software must have a tool to measure and report on the social impact of real estate projects, such as job creation, community engagement, and affordable housing initiatives.

Governance and Compliance

Ensuring that property management and leasing processes adhere to ESG-related regulations and guidelines, such as fair housing laws and ethical business practices, is another critical element of proptech in sustainable real estate.

ESG Reporting and Disclosure

Establishing sustainable development in real estate facilitates the generation of ESG reports for investors, tenants, and other stakeholders, showcasing the commitment to sustainability and responsible business practices.

Smart building technology

Incorporating IoT devices and sensors for real-time monitoring of factors like air quality, temperature, and occupancy, can contribute to both sustainability and tenant well-being.

Sustainable Materials Sourcing

Integrating information about sustainable and eco-friendly building materials to promote environmentally responsible construction and renovations.

Stakeholder Engagement

Tools for engaging with tenants, investors, and the community to gather feedback and input on ESG initiatives and strategies is another important factor of sustainable development in real estate.

Now that we have looked into the role of proptech that is defining the benefits of sustainable real estate and the features which would make it possible to achieve, let us look into how we contribute to it.

Build Proptech for Sustainable Real Estate Development with Appinventiv

Around 80% of companies that leverage Proptech enabled sustainable real estate solutions benefit from better operations sustainability and deliver higher quality services. So, if you don’t want your business to be deprived of these advantages, you must enhance your digital capabilities and invest in innovative approaches like embracing the Proptech trend.

However, developing and integrating Proptech sustainable real estate solutions or any such technology might not be an easy task. This is where Appinventiv comes into play.

We have been making innovative applications and software for real estate for 8+ years and served the needs for real estate digitalization for many big industry players.

For instance, Ility, a real estate giant, was looking for a real estate app development company to build a robust SaaS platform that could transform their real estate businesses. And in their search, they came out to us.

We started with analyzing and understanding their requirements. Based on that, we made a detailed analysis report and built a highly robust SaaS real estate application with extensive customization capabilities, high flexibility, and scalability.

The software is a good mix of emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, metaverse, etc., effective WiFi and print management systems, and multiple seamless digital access systems.

Looking for similar solutions for sustainable real estate development? Get in touch with us now. Whatever your Real Estate requirements are, we will fuel your business with the right Proptech sustainability solution.

FAQs

Q. What is Proptech in sustainable real estate development??

A. Proptech in sustainable real estate development means implementing intelligent energy management systems, which enable businesses to ensure the optimal use of other available resources.

Q. What is an example of Proptech in sustainable real estate?

A. A building that is highly energy efficient, has dedicated space for community building, and the building owners have all of their documents in place in a transparent manner can be a great example of proptech in sustainable real estate development.

Q. What are the benefits of Proptech in sustainable real estate?

A. The benefits of proptech in sustainable real estate lie in – lowered carbon footprint, increased property value, improved tenant retention, regulatory compliance adherence, and corporate governance-related benefits.

Q. What are some examples of Proptech in sustainable real estate development?

A. Real estate Proptech sustainability trends refer to the innovative use of technology to enhance efficiency in the industry. Some common examples of Proptech in sustainable real estate development are: