Randy Moss, an industry principal at Yardi, joined the latest episode of the REIT Report podcast to discuss the current landscape for energy management and sustainability reporting facing REITs and commercial real estate (CRE). Yardi is a Nareit Real Estate Sustainability Partner.
Moss pointed to funding and building performance standards as key issues of the moment. “The challenge is understanding where your buildings have to comply, (and) what all-new data points you may be needing to collect,” he said.
At the same time, utility companies are putting more roadblocks in the way of providing data, especially for tenant-occupied spaces in buildings, according to Moss. “Staying ahead of all of that is going to take some real focus within the REIT space,” he said.
Moss also noted that data security is “probably one of the biggest issues in our industry today. And that is largely being driven by the increase in rapid acceptance of artificial intelligence.”
Elsewhere, Moss commented on the possibility of an alignment of sustainability reporting standards. “Within the next couple years, I think we'll be looking at over 50 building performance standards in the U.S. and Canada…short term, we're not going to see a consolidation, at least not a significant one,” he said.
Moss also highlighted the rising costs of electricity and water, and how these factors will influence energy management strategies moving forward.