Paywalls must fall, the ecosystem must integrate, and focus must shift to outcomes.
When I started Measurabl 13 years ago, onboarding 1 billion square feet of real estate onto our platform was aspirational.
In just four weeks, over 5,700 buildings, representing 1.04 billion square feet of real estate across 34 countries, have started using Measurabl’s free sustainability software solution—bringing our global coverage to more than 21 billion square feet. It’s the fastest adoption in our history, and a clear signal: the industry is ready for a new model—and willing to move quickly when barriers are removed.
But this milestone is about more than scale. It marks a shift in how we approach value creation through sustainability data: from siloed and inaccessible to open, integrated, and freely available to all.
While we were right about the potential to scale sustainability through software, I was dead wrong to think measuring sustainability performance data in and of itself was the end goal. All that square footage, all that data—they’re just inputs. Today, one thing has never been more objectively clear: the industry needs to refocus on outcomes, like improved asset values and lower costs of capital, by embedding sustainability data into the day-to-day business of real estate.
That may sound obvious. But here’s the hard truth: while many in the industry know and say we should focus on outcomes, most aren’t actually doing it.
The average broker, property manager, or loan underwriter isn’t thinking about carbon or climate risk—let alone using them in day-to-day leasing or diligence decisions. And to the extent we’ve made progress on this front, it is not at the speed or scale necessary to transition to sustainable real estate in this generation.
It’s time for a new way forward. Launching our first-ever free solution, with core functionality from our more extensive end-to-end platform, is just the start of doing our part.
A new business case for sustainability
For the last two decades, our industry has been focused on building consensus around common metrics, standards and frameworks. That work was a critical prerequisite to what came next: the regime of benchmarks, labels and reporting that dominates today.
With full recognition of this regime’s good intentions and also full appreciation for the tremendous success it has afforded Measurabl and many others, we nonetheless call for transformation.
Before I describe what we should transform to, let me first answer why a change is needed at all.
The world has changed. From the EU Omnibus rollback and proposed defunding of ENERGY STAR, to sustained high interest rates—today’s regulatory whiplash and poor macroeconomic conditions have exposed two fundamental flaws in the current sustainability regime.
First, it does not deliver sufficient ROI. The combined cost of acquiring and maintaining labels, preparing reports, and staffing the necessary technology outweighs the economic value. Asset values are not viscerally and directly linked to one or more specific sustainability KPI like carbon or energy intensity.
Many will say this is wrong: “Physical climate risk is existential,” “carbon is an anchor around asset price,” “tenant demand is strongly influenced by green certifications,” and “regulation is exposing new costs that must be accounted for.” These voices are correct (I was one of them). But they’re dramatically off in degree.
And that’s the second problem: we have most definitely not achieved repeatable, reliable, or global scale (see Measurabl Intelligence | Edition 1). In fact, our data shows that, even in top-performing portfolios, the decarbonization trajectory is falling short of science-aligned targets. Across sectors and regions, progress is being made, just not fast or consistently enough to achieve systemic improvements. That’s why repeatability and comparability matter.
And, for absence of all doubt: a typical real estate transaction conducted anywhere around the globe DOES NOT hinge on any of the things I list above. At best, they’re incremental in whether deals get done and for how much. More commonly, they’re “considerations” where they’re used at all. In the vast majority of deals, they’re not even in the discussion…
Our industry has made real strides—thanks to committed professionals who’ve championed new standards, reporting regimes, and evolving regulations. But progress rooted in the future tense isn’t enough. We have a problem now. And also a tremendous opportunity.
Learning from ENERGY STAR
So how do we bridge the gap? We must connect sustainability to real estate transactions. It can’t remain a silo, running in parallel to traditional diligence, CapEx, or leasing decisions. It must be integrated directly into them. To break down that silo, we must first remove the paywall to data so it can scale and therefore be trusted to reveal true, actionable insights across most global markets. By making that data layer open, agnostic, and integrated, the market can then act on it.
We do have one existing model that’s worked: the U.S. EPA’s ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Although the program was neither designed nor mandated to provide a global solution, it showed us what was possible with a free, open, ecosystem-based approach. We should learn ENERGY STAR’s lessons well and, because the future of this critical infrastructure is in doubt, apply them immediately.
How Measurabl will support the new way forward
An industry leader, Andrea Palmer, CEO of CRREM, recently said, “The most significant barrier to applying CRREM is a lack of available data.”
She’s right—and CRREM is just one example of how progress stalls when data isn’t accessible. That’s exactly why we chose to make Measurabl’s core functionality—trusted for over a decade to help thousands of real estate professionals collect data, ensure quality, meet compliance, and report to stakeholders—available at no cost, in perpetuity.
For organizations managing complexity at scale, premium offerings remain available: advanced analytics, integrations, automations, and portfolio-wide workflows. These provide the next level of intelligence and operational efficiency.
This model—free foundational tools with a path to premium features—offers a blueprint for serving the entire ecosystem, regardless of where you are on your journey.
But that is not all. Our solution is not only free—it’s open, interoperable, and agnostic to the entire ecosystem of owners, operators, consultants, capital market stakeholders, technology companies and more. We will support everyone and anyone with the data, robust APIs, secure permissions, and an accessible model.
An ecosystem approach to shared value
We realize technology companies like us, and service providers generally, will need to reconsider their value proposition in this new world. But doing nothing is much more unpalatable.
If we stay on the same path, we risk wasting time and resources that should be redirected toward making sustainability data integral to real estate transactions. The sooner we change, the sooner costs will fall and benefits will accrue—in the form of more profitable, lower-risk assets. New and better services will emerge. The good news? It’s already happening.
For example, we already integrate with thousands of data sources including utilities around the globe, and data hubs like ENERGY STAR and RealPage, Inc., climate services like The Climate Service from S&P Global, benchmarking authorities like GRESB, decarbonization specialists like CRREM Foundation, and certification agencies like USGBC, along with many others. I want to thank them all for their partnership and invite other sustainability technology companies, ratings agencies, consultants and data providers not only to integrate, but to align on a shared commitment to interoperability. Let’s double down on this collaboration—it’s the new path to more profitable, sustainable real estate.
With every new subscriber and customer, our global dataset grows, enabling richer insights, more accurate and dynamic benchmarking, and greater value for all.
Reach out to leaders@measurabl.com or get started on our free solution by clicking here.
