In recent years, sustainability has been recognised by emerging and newly-industrialised economies to have a positive impact on a wide range of sectors.
A year ago, real estate investment managers and developers were focused on responding to a low-carbon economy as demands for action over climate change was growing. But equally important today is the drive for value and savings for building owners. With the economic pressures of the pandemic, companies are looking internally on ways to reduce energy demand of their assets, which in turn will help with reinvestment.
In many cases, the reinvestments are then used to adjust business operations to new market trends or can be used as offsets to reduced leasing income
As a driver of development, various investment managers have been actively working to bolster and revive sustainable infrastructure through various means.
Growing, preserving and creating such infrastructure is not just about ticking boxes. Instead, investment managers and developers should look to identifying solutions and giving clients the mechanisms to make significant energy reduction, utility bill reduction and a carbon reduction.
There are a few significant changes that have taken place over the last 10-15 years and have the potential to generate value – these include:
The fresh air rates from ASHRAE 62.1
Although the amount of fresh air required under ASHRAE has not changed in the last 15 years, the ‘methodology’ in which these are introduced into the spaces have evolved. Now, there are multiple energy recovery devices that will allow for a reduction in energy spent in the process.
The devices include enthalpy wheels (single/dual), horseshoe heat pipes, desiccant wheels, and liquid desiccants among others.
These would allow for up to 90% energy recovery from the exhaust air systems, which are used to pre-cool the outdoor air that is being introduced into buildings.
Retail Usage Evolution
The split in between food and beverage (F&B) infrastructure and line shops has also evolved from 6% to 12% in 2004 to 12 to 20% in 2019. For the retail sector, there is a shifting focus from transactional encounters to meaningful interactions and experiences.
As such, there has been a recent surge in the demand for entertainment infrastructure and co-working spaces such as business centers within malls.
With this, we say goodbye to fixed retail spaces and welcome more fluid structures that accommodate social distancing guidelines, while adhering to the evolving needs of communities.
Lifecycle investment
Investment in building lifecycle costs is significantly underinvested in the region with many property owners deferring maintenance and replacement for years.
Research suggests that the best case could be USD14 of future capital spending for every USD3.5 of money deferred today on maintenance, highlighting the huge future penalties impacting property owners.
This penalty excludes the operating expenditure (OPEX) costs impact, which comes from general efficiency reductions.
System diversities
Identification of simultaneous peak loads of the different space heat contributors allows ascertaining dynamic diversified load demands.
This, in turn, enables optimisation of the zonal plants, and allows for further diversities being applied to different zones. These are being applied from ‘individual space’ to ‘zones’ to ‘building’ to developments’.
It is envisaged that with basic demand scheduling in buildings over 10 years, a minimum of 15% reduction in plant sizing can be achieved. Based on a recent model carried out by JLL, this has a knock-on effect to the plant performance and energy savings.
Improvement in building fabric performance has been made possible by the use of better performing energy efficient materials.
The upgrade is possible by applying additional insulation or materials that can retrospectively have a huge impact in reducing the load.
Building Envelope Enhancements
Although it may seem as though changing the building envelope is a mega overhaul to a building – making moderate changes can have a huge impact on its efficiency.
Today, building design involves ascertaining infiltration of air into the space is at a minimum by keeping the building positively pressurised.
This is then tested to ensure air infiltration is limited to 10m3/m2/hour at a pressure differential of 50Pa.
Testing buildings retrospectively with adjustments to the building air-tightness can reduce energy significantly in older buildings.
Renewable energy consumption
Investment in renewable energy 10 years ago was cumbersome due to the investment and space required by building owners as technologies and suppliers evolved.
Today, solar panel costs have reduced by about 62% in the last 10 years with an efficiency increase of around 20%.
With utility costs holding in the region, the push for end users to utilise renewable energy is more prevalent than ever.
Although incentives to changing building operations differ from one building owner to another, ensuring transparency and a proactive approach is essential to generating value.
This can be achieved by reducing operating expenditure costs, increasing revenue on leasing, reducing carbon footprint and minimising maintenance costs.
Laying the groundwork for a new world of changed perceptions and altered priorities around building operations also entails working towards increasing the lifespan of infrastructure, reducing plant space and planning for effective short and long term investments.