In this special episode of the REIT Report, part of an ongoing series, “Building Resilience,” covering issues facing the REIT industry as it remains focused on investing for the long term, Deborah Cloutier, chief sustainability officer of Legence and the president and founder of RE Tech Advisors, joins Nareit’s Jessica Long, senior vice president of environmental stewardship and sustainability, to discuss her perspective on the evolution of sustainability as part of strategic planning for building owners. She also looks at the role of data, engineering and skilled trades in advancing ROI-backed solutions that improve efficiency, resilience, and asset value.
Cloutier shares how Legence is a leading provider of engineering, consulting, installation, and maintenance services for mission-critical systems in buildings, making them more energy efficient, resilient, and sustainable.
“I think what’s missing is we have a lot of the know-how, the technology, the ability to analyze data and identify opportunities, but it is doing it at speed and scale.” She shares how “Legence specializes in designing, fabricating, and installing these complex HVAC and MEP systems, which enhances energy efficiency, improves the reliability of the systems and the uptime of the equipment, and extends its useful life.”
“I think efficiency is the foundation of resilience. When buildings are optimized mechanically and digitally, they’re better equipped to handle disruptions, to reduce the load on the grid, and to maintain uptime during extreme conditions. And they’re then going to be able to deliver the risk-adjusted returns that are expected.”
“Two persistent gaps that I’ve observed in the marketplace on my journey intersection of sustainability and commercial real estate are strategic alignment and data fragmentation,” Cloutier says. She also shares how, “sustainability objectives in the early days were often aspirational and disconnected from underwriting and asset level planning. Organizations lacked a roadmap and an understanding of how improving building performance can preserve and create value.”
Cloutier mentions a new ASHRAE guide, which she describes as “a digestible financial framework that allows the REITs to align their investment timeframes and help justify investments that might not pencil out right in that typical three to five year window. And it shows how you can create substantial value over the asset lifecycle.”
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