"We're reaching a maturity point where 80-85% data coverage is achievable for most companies, but now we need to ask hard questions about what that data is actually for. The transition is moving from basic reporting to understanding the real dynamics of our assets" said Chris Pyke, Chief Innovation Officer at GRESB.
NEW YORK, July 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global real estate powerhouses Tishman Speyer, Schindler, GRESB, and EQT Real Estate joined leading sustainability innovators at 30 Rockefeller Center for the Sustainable Real Estate Forum, a cornerstone event of New York Energy Week 2025, hosted by Peter Panayi, Head of Global Go-To-Market at BuildingMinds.
The afternoon event featured keynote presentations from Brookfield, alongside a compelling panel discussion titled "Data-driven Decarbonization: Unlocking Value Across Real Estate & Infrastructure", moderated by award winning keynote speaker Nikki Greenberg.
During the forum, Jens Hirsch, Chief Scientific Officer at BuildingMinds, emphasized the critical role of intelligent data in driving sustainable transformation.
"The real challenge isn't just collecting data anymore-it's making it actionable for portfolio-level decision making" Dr. Hirsch reflected.
The panel discussion brought together industry heavyweights including Paul Rode, Managing Director Property Operations at Tishman Speyer; Richard Piovano, Vice President Global Accounts Americas at Schindler; Chris Pyke, Chief Innovation Officer at GRESB; and Matt Praske, Head of Sustainability at EQT Real Estate.
EQT Real Estate has significantly expanded its data management capabilities through BuildingMinds' invoice processing technology, integrating over 22,000 invoices. This has helped increase their US portfolio data coverage from 3% to 15-20%-a roughly 500% improvement that demonstrates both the progress made and the substantial journey still ahead for comprehensive portfolio visibility across the industry.
Key Insights from the Forum:
- Smart Data as Strategic Asset: Tishman Speyer showcased how intelligent building data has become fundamental to strategic decision-making, aligning operational excellence with decarbonization goals while enhancing tenant satisfaction.
- Retrofit Innovation at Scale: Schindler demonstrated breakthrough approaches to modernizing vertical mobility systems, showing how sustainability improvements simultaneously deliver enhanced experiences and measurable sustainability outcomes.
- Beyond Compliance: GRESB revealed how benchmarking has evolved beyond compliance to become a powerful differentiation tool in capital markets, while highlighting the need to move beyond traditional energy use intensity metrics.
- Portfolio-Level Transformation: Speakers explored how asset-level innovations translate into fund-level sustainability scores, showcasing how data-driven strategies are reshaping entire real estate portfolios.
The forum particularly highlighted challenges in the industrial and logistics sector, where significant opportunities exist for impact at scale. EQT's portfolio experience provided real-world context for how the intersection of sustainability and operational efficiency creates unique challenges, including tenant fleet electrification needs, warehouse conditioning requirements, and the paradox of increasing energy use in buildings being optimized for efficiency.
The panel candidly addressed current industry implementation challenges, exploring the complex relationship between investor requirements and tenant operational priorities. While investors increasingly drive sustainability mandates, tenants-particularly in industrial properties-are primarily motivated by operational efficiency and rising energy costs rather than environmental goals alone.
Addressing how major real estate operators are navigating these competing priorities, Paul Rode from Tishman Speyer explained how his company has embedded sustainability considerations directly into their operational processes. "We're integrating carbon planning directly into our asset management decisions. Every time we make choices about property investments or tenant build-outs, we're now doing that with a lens towards where we want the property to be carbon-wise in the future", he noted.
Looking ahead, speakers highlighted emerging industry pressures including the need to condition previously unconditioned warehouse spaces due to worker comfort requirements, tenant fleet electrification demands, and upcoming carbon pricing regulations in various markets.
The event concluded with extensive networking sessions, providing opportunities to forge partnerships and explore collaborative solutions for the sector's sustainability challenges.
This significant forum reinforced New York City's position as a global hub for sustainable real estate innovation, with major industry players demonstrating how technology and strategic partnerships are building the low-carbon, future-ready portfolios that will define the next era of real estate excellence.
About the Participating Organizations
Tishman Speyer is a leading owner, developer, operator and investment manager of first-class real estate in approximately 40 key markets across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Tishman Speyer's portfolio spans market rate and affordable residential communities, premier office properties and retail spaces, industrial, life science and data center facilities, and mixed-use campuses.
GRESB is the global standard for sustainability benchmarking and reporting for real estate and infrastructure investments, providing actionable and standardized data to capital markets to improve the sustainability performance of real assets.
EQT Real Estate is a global leader in real estate investment management, with more than $35 billion in total property gross asset value since inception, and serving a wide range of institutional clients worldwide. With a history spanning over five decades, the firm acquires, develops, and manages logistics, office, life science, and residential properties. Managing over 2,000 properties and 400 million square feet, EQT Real Estate ranks among the world's largest real estate developers.
BuildingMinds is a leading real estate software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider that offers a comprehensive, data-driven platform for optimizing building performance and sustainability. Through innovative technology and analytics, BuildingMinds enables real estate owners and managers to monitor, analyze, and optimize their assets, supporting the transition to a more sustainable and data-driven real estate industry.
Peter Panayi, Head of Global Go-to-Market, BuildingMinds peter.panayi@buildingminds.com.
Chiara Buso, Go-to-Market Project Manager, BuildingMinds chiara.buso@buildingminds.com.
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