This month, thousands of professionals from among the world’s prominent organisations gathered in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, for the LEAP technology show. Known as the ‘digital Davos’ it serves as a forum to discuss the latest innovations and technological advancements, exploring their potential to elevate diverse sectors.

The event’s third edition was held under the theme ‘Into the New World’, convening 1,800 globally renowned brands, 1,000 speakers and 680 startups.

Participants included leaders and experts from the built environment industry – owner- operators of large and complex property estates, city infrastructure, campuses and urban estates. As stated in Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’, they are preparing for “tomorrow’s world, a world that is connected, technology forward and facing climate change, head-on.”

Facing climate change head on is an urgent ‘action’ for leading players in the sector, and many are eager to understand the role of technology and innovations  in addressing this pressing challenge.

Currently, buildings are responsible for 39 per cent of global energy-related carbon emissions. Hence, by promoting sustainability within built environments, rising carbon emissions can be mitigated, paving the way for net-zero emissions.

Improving the sustainability performance of our built assets is important for owner-operators of large property portfolios in other ways too: for ESG compliance, investor sentiment and talent recruitment. The latter has been evidenced by the 30,000 students who have, since 2018, signed the environment ‘Wake up Call’ - a pledge to only work for environmentally conscious companies.

From a commercial perspective, efficient energy management as well as waste and water consumption can help generate substantial cost savings and enhance portfolio performance.

Nurturing a connected and technology-centric future

Leading UAE entities that have a robust sustainability strategy in place and are embracing the benefits that technologies have to offer, will be well-placed for immediate and future success. But where to start?

It starts with data – a clear data strategy that will enable you to fully understand the environmental and sustainability impacts of your portfolio and how they can be improved.

With robust, structured data, estate owner-operators can answer fundamental questions such as:

Are we en route to achieving our goals?

How are we performing against our commitments?

What is the impact of our measures to bring about change?

What gets measured, gets managed.

The first step for any estate owner seeking to move into the ‘connected future’ is to establish a master data management (MDM) strategy, which prioritises the highest energy-consuming assets and to implement interventions that can make a difference in reducing consumption and enhancing performance.

An MDM strategy ensures the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of an organisation’s master data. It involves de-duplicating, reconciling, and enriching the data to create a consistent, reliable and authoritative source of truth.

In short, it provides a solid foundation that ensures that everyone is on the same page.

However, an organisation’s carbon footprint extends beyond its own operations. Hence, owner-operators should set clear data governance standards for all suppliers to follow.

With the necessary layers of data in place, key decisions can be made with regard to the ‘6 Rs’ of circular economy (reduce, reuse, recycle, refuse, re-think, and repair).

Organisations can also then start to consider the potential for new technologies. These include digital twins, generative AI, and enterprise asset management technologies – all bringing about opportunities to quantify, predict, and enhance the sustainability story, now and into the future.

Make or break

As Mike Berners-Lee, a leading climate change academic puts it, for our planet, the present time is the “make or break years”. Hence, concerted efforts at both global and regional levels are necessary to advance sustainability.

In such a scenario, the UAE, as an innovation and sustainability leader, has the opportunity to lead the way for others, while unlocking vast opportunities for transformational growth and long-term resilience.

Moreover, initiatives such as the ‘UAE Innovation Month’ are catalysing the nation’s digital transformation by empowering key sectors. Such endeavours further promote public-private collaborations aimed at promoting technological advancements, while also positioning leading academic institutions as key facilitators of digital transformation.

Dr Victoria Fillingham is the Digital Transformation Consultant at Bentley Systems, Advisory Services