How VORM & Next Real Estate reduced energy costs and improved tenant comfort with Healthy Workers

VORM combines project development, construction, and investment services. Among its multiple holdings is the Next Real Estate portfolio. Bas Doedens, heads up technical and asset management, looking after offices, shopping centers, and hotels across the Netherlands and Belgium.

VORM aims to make indoor spaces more comfortable, boost building performance, and upgrade its portfolio to an energy label A within five to six years.
To reach these goals and improve sustainability, energy efficiency, and tenant satisfaction, Bas teamed up with Healthy Workers.

Balancing indoor comfort with energy efficiency: 3 big challenges

Balancing tenant comfort with ESG requirements, cutting energy waste, and delivering energy-efficient solutions means juggling many stakeholders. To tackle these demands, Bas says the work comes down to three main challenges.

1. Optimizing building performance

Optimizing processes and renovations, like maintenance and managing installations, takes up a lot of time. Fragmented technical systems and limited control often make the job inefficient and time-consuming.

“We want to take building optimizations to the next level — for both property owners and the people using the buildings. Staying on top of sustainability measures and process improvements is key to making that happen,” Bas explains.

These challenges call for better collaboration among all stakeholders, because if one party doesn’t live up to expectations and requirements, buildings can’t be optimized. And that’s just the start. Bas points out that there are other hurdles to overcome, such as meeting ESG requirements.

2. Addressing sustainability goals

ESG requirements often align with property upgrades, but they also come with challenges, like electricity grid bottlenecks. Bas highlights the issue: “Becoming more sustainable, quickly and efficiently, is no easy task. Grid operators are often hesitant to expand connections, making collaboration even more essential.”

Sustainability goals aren’t just a priority for building owners and asset managers — tenants are becoming more aware of the need to meet these requirements as well. 

3. Meeting tenant demands

Tenants are increasingly demanding sustainable improvements, driven by pressure to share insights with their holding companies and investors. As Bas puts it, “It all comes down to achieving excellent indoor climate comfort while keeping energy use low.”

This challenge aligns with VORM’s mission to secure an A-label for its entire portfolio within 5-6 years. A goal that benefits everyone from credit markets and building users to environmental regulators.

Overcoming these challenges requires more than traditional approaches. It calls for smarter and more integrated solutions. Isolated fixes weren’t going to cut it. 

From manual fixes to intelligent building management  

To address these challenges and meet sustainability goals, VORM started with building upgrades like improving insulation, roofing, and HVAC systems to cut waste and energy use. They then partnered with installation teams to shift from reactive to proactive maintenance.

Bas shares how the need to move away from manual processes became clear: “Each building has its own requirements, and since we were paying the energy bills ourselves, we became very focused on spotting waste — whether through insulation, HVAC tweaks, or cutting unnecessary heating and cooling.”

The team quickly realized Excel wasn’t enough, especially for gaining deeper insights or planning ahead. That’s when they began exploring smarter solutions, like Healthy Workers.

Monitoring and optimizing buildings proactively and efficiently

Since partnering with Healthy Workers, VORM has adopted a more data-driven, intelligent approach to building management. The company now benefits from real-time insights into key metrics like energy consumption, CO2 levels, indoor climate conditions, and peak energy use. These insights enable the team to monitor and optimize their buildings well beyond basic upgrades.

Bas explains: “Healthy Workers sharpens and deepens our conversations with tenants and building owners. Not just at the building level but even down to individual spaces. The platform also simplifies control engineering, which is typically complex and expensive.”

He adds that Healthy Workers provides on-demand access to building system data, saving significant time, energy, and money previously spent on manual processes and high control engineering fees. “The platform verifies desired settings and controls, giving us access to building data whenever we need it, without extra hassle or cost,” Bas notes.

By translating complex data into actionable insights, Healthy Workers has become an essential tool for Bas, helping him manage buildings smarter and more efficiently every day.

Turning data into actions to improve relationships and results

When asked about working with Healthy Workers, Bas described the collaboration as a real pleasure. The reason? It’s been a constructive process that brought together complex software, control engineering, and diverse stakeholders.

“We’re in close contact, and Healthy Workers handles a lot more than just data collection. They also interpret, report, and verify the data. Plus, we involve the tenants — showing them what we’ve done, how we’ve done it, and what’s still planned to strengthen the relationship.”

With Healthy Workers leading the way in data collection, analysis, and reporting, VORM now has a complete and actionable view of building performance. The results speak for themselves: fewer maintenance disruptions, and considerable energy savings. 

For example, the VORM Headquarters reduced energy consumption by approximately 12% in 2023 and 14% in 2024 compared to 2022. Across all buildings, the average energy savings were around 15%, with reductions of up to 23% in some locations.  

Bas adds that this collaboration has also helped VORM take a closer look at its own processes and control technology: “We wanted more control over the work of installation companies. With data and remote access, we’ve reduced disruptions, cut energy use, lowered costs, and improved tenant comfort.”

He also notes that discussions with installers and control engineers now focus on the finer details. Bas appreciates how Healthy Workers guides installation companies in the right direction, saving his team considerable time and effort.

Expanding horizons together 

Looking ahead, VORM envisions Healthy Workers playing an even bigger role in their sustainability journey. Bas highlights the importance of integrating sustainability efforts from the start. While the focus has primarily been on office buildings, he’s eager to extend these solutions to other asset types, such as hotels and shopping centers.

VORM is also experimenting with cutting-edge technologies like digital twin models and AI-driven systems to enable predictive building management. By combining these tools with Healthy Workers’ expertise, the company aims to set a new benchmark for smart and sustainable building management across its entire portfolio.

As Bas says, “We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible. The more insights we gather, the more opportunities we have to optimize. We’re excited to continue this journey together and make real estate more sustainable.”

We couldn’t agree more, this is just the beginning of creating more sustainable real estate. Thank you for trusting us, Bas, and for sharing your insights. Let’s keep building a sustainable future together.

Want to reduce energy consumption and improve tenant comfort? Our full-service approach delivers a positive ROI within the first year. Book a free demo, and we’ll show you how we can help create sustainable, healthy, and profitable buildings.