March 31st 2021

The rise of ESG in the real estate sector and how Digital Twins help

The rise of ESG in the real estate sector and how Digital Twins help

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is moving up the agenda very quickly. It has gone from niche and narrow to a necessary part of institutional investing and asset management.

The real estate sector has been subject to an evolving wave of new legislation as the Government continues to respond to ESG-related issues, including the recent report by the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’ (TCFD).

ESG has never been more important in the transition to a net zero economy. Organizations should provide the key metrics used to measure and manage climate-related risks and opportunities.

When considering the jump to "how", first there is need to apply a forward-looking lens and to develop a framework that clearly addresses the physical and transition risks and opportunities that exist. The digitisation of the construction industry enables commonality across some ESG KPIs and is helping real estate professionals get to grips with built environment data in order to ensure delivery of safe, efficient, healthy buildings to work, rest and play in.

Our mission at IES is the How. We believe Digital Twins are the key to decarbonising the built environment and will thereby play a crucial role in facilitating a global green recovery. Fully scalable from a single building to an entire city, our ICL technologies goes beyond BIM to create a live Digital Twin which responds and behaves like its real world counterpart. Delivering the data-driven information needed to uncover significant energy, carbon, capital and operational savings, while taking account of resource use, transport, social, health and economic factors.

I recently spoke on the subject with Sarah Ratcliff, CEO of the Better Buildings Partnership, and Farnam Bidgoli, Head of ESG Solutions EMEA at HSBC.

Watch a recording of our recent webinar "The rise of ESG in the Property Investment Management Process: Challenges and Opportunities" on the topic here.