How Equity Estate plans to achieve a Paris-Proof portfolio with Healthy Workers by 2030

By 2030, the EU aims to reduce energy consumption across all office buildings. With 200,000 m² of office space, Equity Estate committed to their Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG): making their entire portfolio Paris Proof by 2030. 

To achieve this, they partnered with Healthy Workers for the insights needed to make smart, sustainable investment decisions. We spoke with COO Nard Schuddebeurs and Asset Manager Koen Janssen about sustainability investments and educating tenants with the right insights. 

Growing challenges due to tightened European regulations on office building sustainability

Nard, COO at Equity Estate, manages the operational side of real estate and oversees the Asset Management team, which is responsible for the physical aspects of the properties.

Asset Manager Koen is part of Nard’s team and works closely with tenants. He handles the commercial, technical, and strategic management of various buildings and is responsible for a large portfolio that includes office spaces, retail premises, and business areas.

With a portfolio primarily consisting of office buildings, both Nard and Koen recognize the increasing need for more sustainable properties.

Nard explains, “What you see is that European regulations are increasingly focused on making office buildings more sustainable. This has a very big impact on the future of office spaces. You have to work on sustainability and educate tenants as well.”

Sustainability efforts won’t be successful, or even possible if they’re not based on accurate insights. This is why Nard and Koen began exploring office sustainability requirements 2.5 years ago, though this was challenging without the right data.

Deciding on high-impact energy-saving measures within the available budget 

Before partnering with Healthy Workers, Nard and Koen relied on outdated and inefficient methods to track energy consumption across their buildings, managing up to 120 energy meters per building.

Nard explains, “It all starts with measuring. Of course, you can start by checking yearly invoices to see how much energy has been used, which is manageable for just one building. But what’s more important is identifying and calculating which investments will have the biggest impact on energy efficiency.”

They were using quarterly or semi-annual energy data, often with significant delays, which isn’t the most efficient solution for making real-time decisions.

“A lot of mistakes are made when you manually check the data. On top of that, we often receive investment proposals, such as investing in a new air-handling unit. This would take up a large part of the budget. So the need for trustworthy data increases, as I want to be able to make investment decisions based on data I trust.” - Nard Schuddebeurs

Koen also emphasizes the challenge of managing and educating stakeholders: “Energy savings aren’t part of the DNA of installers, tenants, or even investors. If you don’t measure building performance and energy usage properly, you simply don’t know. And knowing is the only way to get everyone on the same wavelength.”

As energy costs continue to rise, pressure on tenants and investors increases. The Equity Estate team is keen to learn as much as possible about this topic now. With real-time, accurate building data showing both indoor climate and energy consumption, they can make better decisions to not only make their buildings greener but also save on energy costs.

Precision with real-time building data for fast responses and tenant education

In their search for a smarter approach to data, Nard and Koen connected with Guus Meulendijks from Healthy Workers. There are various ways to make buildings more sustainable, and with Healthy Workers, the team at Equity Estate was able to implement multiple solutions effectively.

Nard explains the process: “It all starts with measuring. Then, you assess what installations are actually present in a building. Are they all necessary? Or do they need adjustments? Then there’s the question of whether tenants should use less energy. Should the lights be turned off during the weekends? This is also part of tenant education. If you want to hold tenants accountable, you need to be able to show them the data.”

Koen gives a practical example of how Healthy Workers helped improve the configurations of building systems: “What we did in one of our office buildings is look at it from a theoretical point of view. First, we looked at how the building should be set up. Once the basics were set up, we looked at the additional settings within the building and saw where else we could make optimizations.”

Today, Healthy Workers allows for fast and precise adjustment of building installations, enabling Equity Estate to optimize energy use while ensuring that all stakeholders, from tenants to investors, are aligned with sustainability objectives.

A higher asset value with increasing ESG scores 

With the help of Healthy Workers, Nard, Koen, and the asset management team identified areas where energy is beingwasted. Although some results are still emerging, both Nard and Koen have confidence in their vision and in the support of Healthy Workers for the future.

Nard explains, “ESG has an impact on asset value, but interest rates have an even bigger impact, and they’ve been fluctuating a lot lately. Our goal is to get our buildings to a high ESG level, which means they will be of high quality. This will help increase their value as laws, investors, and banks are becoming stricter regarding sustainability. We believe it’s important to take the lead, and team Healthy Workers shares this vision.”

Koen adds that the implementation of Healthy Workers varies by building but praises their proactive approach: “It’s great to work with Healthy Workers because they take the lead on every new project we start. We have faced some delays due to a shortage of technical staff at the installation companies, but Healthy Workers always ensures the project keeps moving forward.”

With a mission to achieve higher ESG scores, Equity Estate can position itself as a leader in sustainable real estate. This will help attract more tenants, secure better financing terms, and increase asset value.

The next phase: a “Brown to Green” business plan

The next step for Equity Estate is to invest in the right buildings to make them more sustainable. Nard explains they already have a few buildings suitable for their new business plan in mind.

Nard: “Our next goal is to roll out our ‘Brown to Green’ business plan, where we’ll acquire older buildings and significantly reduce their energy consumption. Healthy Workers will be the first thing we implement in these buildings.”

Koen adds that Healthy Workers has become an essential part of their standard toolkit for making buildings more sustainable: 

“In the past two years, we’ve developed a toolkit to support our Paris-Proof ambitions. We’re not only looking at what needs to be done to make a building greener but also how to do it. We’ve now reached a point where we fully understand the requirements and how to execute them, allowing us to move faster to the next building.” - Koen Janssen

Healthy Workers has become a key asset in Equity Estate’s sustainability strategy. As Equity Estate acquires more buildings, they plan to scale this toolkit to ensure all properties are optimized for sustainability and energy efficiency from the moment they’re purchased.

The numbers tell the tale of achieving sustainability goals

Nard and Koen both emphasize the first step to achieving meaningful sustainability in any building is having access to the right data. Their advice to other real estate professionals is clear.

Nard: “When we measure what happens in a building, we can make the right decisions, and Healthy Workers makes that possible. I’ve already introduced Healthy Workers to other peers, and I got in touch with them via my own network as well.”

Koen adds, “And be sure to speak with Guus—he knows even more about it. One of the great advantages of working with Healthy Workers is that they’re always ahead, already working on new ideas. Right now, we get insights into air, light, and water, and in the near future Healthy Workers will add waste streams. This will allow us to send complete reports to tenants, saving us a lot of time.”

As more and more stakeholders feel the need to embrace more sustainability practices, they need a holistic approach to sustainability and reporting. Equity Estate already has a competitive advantage thanks to the learnings of the past 2.5 years, and at Healthy Workers we’re extremely proud we can be a part of their road to become Paris-Proof. 

Do you also want to measure proactively and know which investments can help you become more sustainable? Our full-service approach helps you increase asset value and achieve a positive ROI within the first year. Book your free demo and discover how to create sustainable, healthy, and profitable buildings.