You have invested in a building, but you are not seeing the returns you had hoped for. You are doing all the right things: Your building looks new and fresh, your grounds keeping is meticulous, your building management team addresses all issues quickly and you even have invested in new mechanical and security systems. All of these are great and need to be done, but unfortunately these are the exactly the same things all building owners are doing to attract new tenants. How are you going to be different and how can you create demand that allows you to make a premium.
Before we get into differentiating yourself, we need to explore the two levers you have to drive your return on investment. Revenue and cost. It’s easy to look at these as independent variables. I would suggest 20 years ago this was the case. People didn’t look beyond their rental agreement and what they had to pay in rent. There was no consideration given to their carbon footprint or environmental impact and they certainly were not making decisions based on it. Today’s renter or condo owner are much more concerned with how they are impacting the world and and will use the efficiency of your building as a deciding factor on where to live or set up shop. Don’t get me wrong, they still expect the building to be well maintained and comfortable. They still expect it to be safe and secure. However, they also want to know the building they are choosing to live in or work in supports their values around using the least amount of energy as possible in their day to day lives. More important from a building owners standpoint, they are willing to pay a premium to live up to what they believe in.
Many building owners have not adapted to this new reality and still see revenue and costs as two separate variables. They buy a more efficient HVAC system to reduce heating and cooling costs or they install low flow toilets to reduce water usage, but the results are not captured and used to create demand and drive premiums. Nor are they continuously monitoring their systems to catch issues and maintain optimal performance. These are great initiatives to reduce expenses, but when you don’t celebrate them, you are only getting half the reward. It’s kind of like a hockey player scoring a goal and then not doing a celly! Sure the more goals the player scores the better the contract, but his brand and earning power is impacted by how he celebrates his goals and creates excitement. Showing your positive results to your “fans” could create the differentiation you are looking for to improve your brand and earning power.
Monitoring Based Commissioning is a tool that can help you use both leavers simultaneously to maximize your results. On the cost side, with Monitoring Based Commissioning, you can continuously optimize your mechanical systems, utilities usage, and other systems allowing you to operate as efficiently as possible. On the revenue side, you can use your results as a marketing tool to differentiate your building and attract tenants who value living in a “green building” and are willing to pay a premium for it. It’s win for the owner, a win for the tenant, and a win for our environment.
Our partner, FacilityConnex, has published a white paper titled Green is Good Business: Energy Efficient Buildings Drive Higher Value that goes into great depth about how installing and using a Monitoring Based Commissioning system can help you work with both of your levers simultaneously to help you drive the best results possible.
