Upflex CEO Christophe Garnier writes about the real estate industry’s carbon footprint and the proptech solutions helping enterprise occupiers cut back on their environmental impact for Commercial Observer.
For many companies, 2023’s top priorities revolve around cutting costs and keeping business going, no matter what curveballs the economy throws in the new year. But the arrival of 2023 also means we are yet another year closer to the 2025 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Some business leaders feel pressed to choose between focusing on the bottom line at the expense of their sustainability goals. Others are finding creative ways to do all of this seamlessly — with a future-forward rethink of their real estate strategy.
For occupiers looking to reduce their costs and their business’s environmental impact, the office is a very logical place to start: Real estate is the world’s single largest asset class — and the planet’s single largest contributor to the climate crisis. The built world is responsible for 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Such a big slice of the pie translates into real potential to make progress.
