10 ideas and solutions to encourage tenants to share their utility data

Inaki gonzalez
January 11, 2023

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the residential sector, which includes single-family and multifamily housing, accounted for about 21% of total U.S. energy-related carbon emissions in 2019. More recent information says this type of emissions has increased to 35% (full article can be found here: https://bit.ly/3YkUla1).

Multifamily and Residential Real Estate is still an unattended market vertical for energy management and carbon accounting due to the complexity of collecting individual tenant utility data. Companies nowadays are trying to introduce green lease language in their contracts so they can gather this type of information without further tenant management complexity. One of the main problems is that as the portfolio of a Real Estate company grows, the task becomes harder to fulfill.

In this post, we present 10 ideas and solutions to encourage tenants to share their utility data if green lease language isn't included in their lease:

1.   Education  

Provide tenants with information about the benefits of sharing their utility data, such as cost savings, energy efficiency, and environmental impact.

2.   Incentives  

Offer tenants discounts or other incentives for sharing their utility data, such as lower rent or reduced utility costs.    

3.  Transparency  

Provide tenants with clear and detailed information about how their utility data will be used, and who will have access to it. 

4.   Flexibility  

Allow tenants to share their data on a voluntary basis, and give them the option to opt-out at any time.    

5.   Privacy protection  

Implement measures to protect tenants' personal data, such as encryption and secure storage, and detailed data disposal procedures.    

6.   Communication  

Keep tenants informed about any updates or changes related to their utility data, such as how it's being used or who it's being shared with.  

7.   Third-party involvement 

Hire an independent energy auditor or a utility management company to collect and analyze data in order to reduce the perceived risk of tenants sharing their data with the landlord directly (www.globalcarbonesg.com ;) ).

8.   Benchmarking

Offer tenants the ability to compare their energy usage to similar buildings or units, in order to encourage them to share their data.    

9.   Creating a community

Encourage tenants to share their data by promoting the idea that by doing so, they are contributing to a  collective effort to reduce energy usage and costs for everyone.    

10.   Technology usage  

Make it easy for tenants to share their utility data by providing them with a digital platform to submit and view their data in real-time.