‘We need an activist community to push the panic button on decarbonisation’

COMMENT Having been focused on helping to build a thriving real estate tech industry for almost 10 years, the rate of growth I have seen in the sector has been truly extraordinary. In a relatively short period of time, this industry has grown from a few start-ups and approximately $50m (£41m) invested annually to the thriving real estate tech sector with over 10,000 start-ups and $30bn annual investment we see today. As incredible as the growth has been, it took something as horrific as Covid to really drive tech adoption in the real estate sector. During Covid, technology became a “must have” to mitigate the disruptive impacts the pandemic had on every industry, especially the real estate sector. To enable us to work from home, to manage our operations, to serve customers and be able to continue to transact, technology was the only beneficiary of this tragic period. It has been said that technology in the real estate sector grew tenfold during the pandemic. Even bigger than Covid Tech now needs to help solve another crisis, albeit one that is a bigger threat than even the pandemic: the climate crisis. Given the real estate industry is the largest single contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, we need to build a climate tech sector focused on decarbonising the built environment. Unlike Covid, the climate crisis isn’t coming in waves. It is accelerating in front of our very eyes on a daily basis. We can’t wait around for its effects to hit even more than they already before we create a sense of urgency and galvanise action. So, what can we do to drive real action from the property sector? Government has a role to play, for sure. So do occupiers and residents who need to prioritise healthier and safer physical environments. Lenders, investors, underwriters and insurance companies also have a big role to play to make climate risk a core part of their investment and strategy. But that’s not enough. Greenwashing is rampant today and progress is way too slow in the adoption of climate tech solutions. While we are hearing lots about great net zero and BREEAM-certified buildings being planned or built, the majority of our buildings are 50 years older or more and often ignored in the race to net zero. Hold ourselves to account We in the real estate industry need to hold ourselves – and be held – accountable for making tangible progress. What we need is an activist community. People who will help to push the panic button, hold real estate companies accountable and champion those that are doing the right thing and leading the way in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment. These activists already exist: the likes of Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG Bjarke Ingels Group, Mikkel Bülow-Lehnsby, co-founder and chairman of NREP & 2150 and Juliette Morgan, ESG consultancy director at Gensler, all of whom made the case for climate action as keynote speakers at the CREtech Climate Global Leadership Summit in Copenhagen last week.  When I’m talking about activists, I’m not talking about those taking to the streets in protest (although I’m all for this kind, too). I’m talking more about a different kind of activist like BlackRock’s Larry Fink, a person in a position of great power in the business world and who is using his clout to effect real change. Whatever his motivation is, he is forcing change. That’s the type of activist we need in the built world to address the climate crisis. We should also be looking at things that might attract more activists to the cause, such as the tokenisation of real estate, whereby we open up investment paths so that everyday investors can have a bigger stake in the built environment. How brilliant would it be if we could diversify ownership of real estate companies so that not only could more people engage with the world of real estate, but that each of us could help drive change in the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions? It’s also about attracting more progressive venture capital firms such as Fifth Wall, 2150, A/O Proptech, Third Sphere, PropTech1 Ventures, Taronga Ventures, Pi Labs and many others investing in real estate tech and helping to create the next big thing that can drive real change. And tech companies like Measurabl, CarbonCure, GBuilder, Willow and Modulous and others are already making great strides forward on this and we should support them in doing so. Measurable change We need an activist community to drive real, measurable change towards decarbonising the built world. That means encouraging and supporting those who are willing to speak out and be heard. It means investing in those start-ups that are creating the solutions. And it means encouraging a new generation of activists to challenge the status quo. Just like how tech created a vaccine for Covid in record speed, we need it to help the real estate sector to decarbonise. But, equally as important, we need an activist community to drive the change, investment and adoption to get the world’s largest industry to demand action to address the climate crisis. Michael Beckerman is chief executive of CREtech and CREtech Climate