From brown to green through energy efficiency – where real impact is made

A property’s energy efficiency is key to lower our climate footprint. At Brunswick we help transform buildings for the better by making brown assets green or, specifically turn high energy consuming properties into low energy consuming properties. Anyone can build a new climate efficient building today, but real impact is created when positive change is made in the really bad ones. Therefore, this article will focus on how change is made and, just wait, the numbers will speak for themselves. 

In July 2021 Brunswick sold it’s Finnish property company Kielo to Castellum. A portfolio we had the pleasure of working with for approximately 5 years. From the time that the portfolio was acquired to the day it was sold, the need for purchased energy was decreased with 25% and the substantial development and energy efficiency projects are estimated to have contributed to a value increase of approximately EUR 150 million. With those numbers it’s hard to argue against working with energy efficiency.

Making a building energy efficient is a substantial change and requires a holistic approach, it impacts every part of everything you do in a property in its current state, and in order to keep the efficiency levels a property manager with knowledge of the buildings energy system should be included in all developments so the planned maintenance can be complemented with energy efficient solutions. This way you ensure, the investment generates the best one possible return both from a financial and an environmental perspective. And don’t forget “sharing is caring”, any good example of a successful project should be shared with the rest of the organization and beyond (considering minimizing human impact on the climate is a collective interest and effort). By applying this method, we have managed to reduce 70% bought energy usage in several properties, and we find more potential projects every day.  

We have found that in order to turn high energy consuming properties into low energy consuming properties you need to follow a series of steps;

1.  Ensure that the right energy is used at the right place and time.

2. Think holistic and complement your investment with newer technical installations or more insulation or recycling energy as much as possible for maximum return and lifespan.

3.  Look into the buildings energy supply-chain and evaluate if you can produce your own energy with solar panels or heat production.

5. Install a good control system to ensure the energy usage is measured and logged.

6. Start to control the energy consumption room by room, either with the help of AI or by letting the technician work closely with the property. This is probably going to be even more important in the future where it will be a high demand on flexible usage of the building.

Every high energy consuming property can be turned into low energy consuming property, with a reduced bought energy usage of at least 50 % at a good profit margin. This is what the real estate industry really should set as one of its top priority. Turn brown to green.