Property services group Colliers International have announced the launch of a powerful new environmental management system – Envirometrics – for the corporate real estate sector.
Developed in partnership with CarbonSystems Australia, the ‘Envirometrics’ platform gives building managers and owners information to better manage building environmental performance and
meet compliance based reporting requirements.
Colliers International will implement Envirometrics from 1 July 2010 across buildings in its commercial properties portfolio that have a net lettable area of 2,000 square metres or more.
The system is a property-centric version of CarbonSystems’ Energy and Carbon Intelligence System (ECIS) platform developed specifically to meet the needs of Colliers International.
Colliers International Head of Sustainability and National Director of Real Estate Management, Simon Cox, said that Envirometrics meets a real need in the property market, which has been transformed by stakeholder demands to improve the environmental performance of real estate assets.
“Regulations governing performance standards for leased and owned premises, legislation such as mandatory disclosure of commercial office building energy efficiency, and tenant demand are all drivers for property owners and managers to monitor and report environmental performance as a routine part of their responsibilities,” he said.
“Put simply, this is a better way for Colliers to reduce operating costs and improve the environmental performance of its commercial property portfolio,” he added.
For example, building benchmark reports will provide information on electricity, gas, waste and water use in a client-managed building compared to best practice, such as in a NABERS 5 Star building.
CarbonSystems managing director David Solsky said using Envirometrics to monitor the environmental performance of its property portfolio allows Colliers’ property managers to target areas of excessive consumption and identify opportunities for improvement.
“It provides a performance management framework for internal benchmarking to evaluate the impacts of energy and environmental programs,” he said.
“Equally importantly, it gives property owners the data they need to track and evaluate the payback period and return on investment of efficiency and environmental initiatives, thereby bringing
accountability to environmental initiatives.”
The carbon accounting software industry is one that has enjoyed growth on the back of growing awareness of climate change and environmental concerns. Analysts say there are opportunities as governments worldwide begin to mandate that corporates account for their carbon emissions.
Such carbon accounting start-ups received more than US$46 million in venture capital last year, according to market research by US firm Groom Energy Solutions. Technology giants CA, Microsoft and SAP have also entered the market.
