The need for real estate to decarbonise has never been clearer. Across the sector, many property owners and managers are recognising the operational savings and carbon reduction opportunities that come with action — but achieving meaningful, lasting results requires sustained focus, not one-off initiatives.
This is the message from Katie Whipp, chief business officer at Re:sustain, a technology company using digital twin technology to help owners and managers decarbonise buildings remotely and at scale.
“Often, a property owner will ask, once we’ve optimised a building, that’s our job done, right?” Whipp said. “The reality is, true optimisation is dynamic — it evolves over time and across stakeholders, from investors safeguarding asset value to tenants focused on cost-efficiency, occupier comfort and sustainability.”
Whipp said that while there is growing momentum around reducing energy consumption — even though 80% of the sector remains energy-inefficient — many organisations still face barriers in addressing the fundamentals.
“It’s not a lack of intent,” she said. “It’s the challenge of navigating complex portfolios, legacy systems and shifting market expectations. But that’s exactly where the opportunity lies: When you get the basics right and integrate technology in the right places, you build a platform for long-term decarbonisation and resilience.”
The technology created by Re:sustain ensures buildings operate at their intended efficiency while dynamically adjusting for real-world variables like changing weather, occupancy and system performance. The company’s scientists have developed a fully calibrated digital twin that continuously models building performance against these variables, enabling targeted adjustments on a remote basis that deliver energy and cost savings.
Because of the operational savings the solution delivers, it effectively pays for itself, Whipp said. Clients typically see a return on investment within three to four months.
One common inefficiency Re:sustain addresses is overventilation, where buildings circulate more air than needed, often without accounting for actual occupancy.
“At one site, we found air was being supplied at four times the recommended rate,” Whipp said. “That volume of air requires significant energy to heat or cool, so optimising it led to major efficiency gains — without needing to touch tenant systems.”
The solution often finds hidden inefficiencies in the operation of heat exchangers within air handling units. Systems such as thermal wheels or run-around coils often don’t work as expected, Whipp said. In some cases, they were never fully commissioned or have stopped operating due to maintenance issues no one has picked up on.
At one building, Re:sustain discovered that water had never been added to the run-around coil circuit, despite the building being occupied for more than a year.
“It’s not always obvious from the building management system if these systems are actually working,” Whipp said. “We uncover issues by analysing air temperature patterns that most teams simply wouldn’t see day to day. The solution surfaces incremental changes that would have been too time-consuming to uncover manually, helping to drive continuous operational and cost efficiencies.”
Getting Re:sustain’s solution up and running requires a single piece of hardware, connected to the building management system. Once installed, the platform operates in the cloud, continuously monitoring energy consumption to maintain performance within the newly optimised parameters.
“The solution can be operational in as little as four weeks, making adjustments and forecasting potential savings almost immediately,” Whipp said. “We take pride in the fact that these adjustments are seamless. Occupants don’t experience any disruption to their comfort.”
As well as maintaining business performance, the solution opens the door to greater collaboration with tenants, identifying opportunities to drive even deeper reductions in consumption, Whipp said.
Re:sustain is currently focused on the office sector, where regulatory pressures and operational demands have created strong momentum for decarbonisation. However, the team is expanding into other asset classes, such as retail.
The company is also engaging with construction companies and developers to embed performance optimisation earlier in the building life cycle. Whipp said that design-phase interventions are an area likely to see increasing regulatory focus, making early action even more critical.
While Re:sustain is passionate about optimising all buildings, the team is particularly focused on unlocking value in older assets, Whipp said. With a shortage of Grade A office space across the UK, property owners are under increasing pressure to improve the sustainability of Grade B and C buildings.
“We’re passionate about the 80%-plus of buildings that will still be standing in 2050,” she said. “These older assets often don’t have big budgets attached to them, which is exactly where a calibrated digital twin can be so effective. We’re able to deliver major value across brown assets, helping to put them firmly on the path toward greater efficiency and resilience.”
This article was produced in collaboration between Re:sustain and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.
Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.
