The last few articles in this series have focused on utilities, including recovering expenses from tenants, improving operational efficiency, and avoiding the added costs of regulatory fines and purchasing renewable power. With utilities, the value technology provides is linear. When an insight is implemented, small savings accrue daily, adding up to significant sums when annualized. Conversely, in the world of repairs and property damage, value comes in large, one off events. Instead of saving $200 a day, a property might save $80,000 in an afternoon. This makes adoption challenging fo ..read more

  This is the fifth in Enertiv's latest series, The Compounding Value of Technology, where we explore how technology’s value builds on itself. The previous article was on energy savings. Up next: repairs and property damage. In the last edition of the Compounding Value series, we focused on energy savings. Unlike the earlier articles on productivity, the value of energy savings is obvious. A property used to spend a certain amount on utilities. Now it spends less, the difference is the savings. But that’s not where the story ends. Due to investor and regulatory pressures, every dollar re ..read more

  This is the fourth in Enertiv's latest series, The Compounding Value of Technology, where we explore how technology’s value builds on itself. The previous article was on utility recovery from tenants. Up next: cost avoidance from fines, purchasing renewables, etc.. Energy savings has become a polarizing topic in commercial real estate. Some believe that direct energy savings to landlord-controlled utilities is the only way technology can deliver value when it comes to building operations (one of the reasons we’ve created this series). Others have been burned on real time energy monitor ..read more

  This is the third in Enertiv's latest series, The Compounding Value of Technology, where we explore how technology’s value builds on itself. The previous article was on tech consolidation. Up next: base building energy efficiency. “What’s our recovery rate on utilities?” Despite the direct impact on cash flows, this question often goes unanswered, especially when looking at a portfolio of assets. Worse, the answer to the more important question: “what could we do to increase our utility recovery?” is buried in a maze of excel files. The challenge is common and persistent. Every file is ..read more

  This is the second in Enertiv's latest series, The Compounding Value of Technology, where we explore how technology’s value builds on itself. The previous article was on productivity. Up next: utility recovery In the world of commercial real estate, the quest for efficiency and profitability is a perpetual journey. Asset managers are constantly seeking ways to optimize operations, reduce costs, and gain insights into their portfolios.  In our previous blog post, we delved into the role of technology in boosting productivity, where value can be calculated by multiplying the cost of ..read more

  This is the first in Enertiv's latest series, The Compounding Value of Technology, where we explore how technology’s value builds on itself, from small productivity gains to ultimately increasing asset value at disposition. In commercial real estate, every minute wasted on administrative tasks and inefficient data management translates into lost opportunities for serving tenants and maximizing NOI.  Whether it's manually submitting data to Energy Star, performing inspections on clipboards, or slogging through tenant utility bill backs and CAM reconciliations, the relentless search ..read more

  Now that the dust has settled on the interest in generative AI caused by the launch of ChatGPT, owners and operators of commercial real estate are taking a sober look at how AI and machine learning can deliver value for their business. But before we dive into the details… A quick primer on AI and machine learning Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be described as machines that can duplicate or exceed the cognitive functions of humans. AI has been around for a long time, but it is only recently that models have been able to generate outputs without any human input other than data. Machine ..read more

  From the humble garden style property, to the trophy high rise, to the logistics fulfillment and distribution center, the inspection is a fixture of owning and operating commercial real estate. Inspections form the basis for prioritizing maintenance work and capital investments. Without knowing the current state of things, owners would be flying blind. It would be impossible to follow an investment thesis without understanding the capital and operating requirements of your assets. And yet, with all that rides on inspections, many portfolios still perform this function on clipboards. In ..read more

  Continuing our exploration of topics discussed at BOMA International this year (check out our article on the “flight to quality” here), we are going to dive into one of the most poignant questions asked by the audience.   "How do we get tenants to care about sustainability and their role within that? Even something as simple as recycling seems challenging at the building level." The question drives at the heart of why decarbonization can be so difficult. Landlords are on the hook for performance, even when they control a minority of what drives emissions in a building. The paneli ..read more

  At the recent BOMA International conference in Kansas City, one of the most common topics discussed by panelists was the “flight to quality” happening across property types. The challenge, according to the panelists, is that the definition of “quality” has changed significantly in the last two years. Up until about 5 years ago, quality meant a lobby renovation, a new coat of paint, or just location in dense urban centers. And then, with the combined adoption of technology and the pandemic, quality meant a digital experience for tenants, whether paying rent online, amenity apps, or a mai ..read more