Dear Friends,
I started in the real estate business in 2008 and never heard the term “ESG” during those long, first few years of my career. How far we’ve come. So far, in fact, that the nature and purpose of business has been redefined and a new era underway: the ESG Era.
Where the 2000s were about “green” and 2010s about “sustainability”, the 2020s will be defined by ESG. Environmental, social, and governance considerations will be factored into virtually every aspect of business, from individual hiring to public offerings. In the real estate industry, this will be most radical and noticeable at the asset level where individual transactions – from leasing to appraisal to buy/sell – will flex based on ESG. It is the Era Measurabl was built to serve. And enable.
The ESG Era is defined by environmental, social, and governance being taken into consideration in virtually every aspect of business.
Radically, this will apply to asset-level transactions in the real estate sector like leasing, insurance, and buy/sell.
In the ESG Era, data availability and accuracy remain paramount. On data availability, Measurabl delivered a unique, new and free integration with our partners at Arc, the USGBC’s online LEED certification platform. The integration allows buildings to push their data from Measurabl to Arc, keeping the systems in sync and data up to date, and means Measurabl works like a piston engine between ENERGY STAR, Arc, GRESB, BRE, Yardi, Waste Management, CDP and many other mission-critical sustainability systems. In the three months since the integration has been live, tens of millions of square feet have put it to use. I thank my friend, Dr. Chris Pyke, for his foresight and innovative spirit and also Mahesh Ramanujam for his early and sustained support.
On data accuracy, our partnership with GRESB has gathered strength. Nearly 40 people representing some of the leading real estate owners, investors and service providers around the world participated in the Data Quality Working Group and also GRESB’s first ever survey of data quality practices, the results of which were published in September. I am optimistic the efforts of so many will lead to tools for superior completeness, consistency and comparability of ESG performance among GRESB reporters, and beyond. This has been a massive undertaking. Thank you, Sander Paul Van Tongeren, for your leadership and your hugely talented team for their determination.
Measurabl’s Mission: Create transparency around the environmental and social impact of real estate.
Measurabl’s Vision: A built world where resources virtuously flow to buildings that create sustainable outcomes for Earth and society.
Nearly 9 billion square feet of real estate across 75 countries now use Measurabl. It’s a significant honor to be at the vanguard of the ESG Era and see the market resonate so strongly with our product and results. We take your endorsement as encouragement to raise the bar on the digital tools and infrastructure you leverage to outcompete. As described in my 2019 letter, that means continued investment into our North American and EMEA teams as well as partner ecosystem so excellent software is excellently supported by people. It also means you can expect novel new releases that give you the ability to assess climate risk, regulatory exposure and data integrity in a highly granular and convenient way.
Quality growth is not cheap. Thank you to our capital partners at Sway Ventures, Camber Creek, Constellation Technology Ventures, S&P Global, Building Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Impact Engine and DivcoWest for believing in us and allowing us to maintain superior levels of investment into our business long term.
All this is of course not done in isolation. To the teams at ENERGY STAR, GRESB, ULI Greenprint, CDP, USGBC, BRE, MRI, Waste Management, Urjanet, 2030 Districts, Cleantech San Diego and San Diego Venture Group – thank you for your long standing support.
To our customers and partners: there is no extension of gratitude that would do justice; however, special thanks are due to our Product Advisory Committee and a few members in particular: Sasha Njagulj, Anushka Grant, Zach Brown, Ari Frankel, Jason McIntyre, Ben Myers, Marta Schantz and the ULI Greenprint team. The platform all other customers use would not be possible without your input.
The sustained momentum of 2019 gives me confidence our mission remains on track and vision achievable. We are well equipped to continue helping you measure what matters in the ESG Era.
Sincerely,
Matt Ellis
Founder & CEO, Measurabl