CEO and Co-Founder of Green Generation, which engineers and implements comprehensive integrated energy efficiency solutions.
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The coronavirus pandemic is fueling a new social reality here in the United States. Specifically, as states and municipalities gradually reopen their respective economies, it’s increasingly clear that the American public is divided when it comes to safely reentering workplaces and public life.
Sick with cabin fever, millions of restless Americans whose lives and livelihoods have been upended by the pandemic are eager to return to work and school and otherwise resume their “pre-Covid-19” routines. However, the majority of Americans, while undoubtedly restless, are understandably still reluctant to abandon the social distancing measures meant to curb viral transmission.
Despite their differences, these two groups share some common motivators and emotions: fear, uncertainty and indecision. Who could blame them? The country is inadequately prepared for ongoing infections. Despite the general uncertainty, those of us in the commercial real estate sector (CRE) face one unequivocal certainty: Real estate property investors, owners, developers and managers must adapt quickly to survive.
For the CRE sector, restoring trust among a broad spectrum of stakeholders is critical to mitigate decreasing investor confidence, evolving tenant expectations, rent shortfalls and other emerging headwinds. To be sure, the CRE industry has successfully rebounded from unforeseen external shocks before. However, this time is different. While the task of restoring stakeholder confidence sounds intuitive enough, the level of skepticism that this pandemic has engendered among people warrants an equally extraordinary response.
There’s no silver bullet. More rigorous sanitation protocols or new floor plans conducive to social distancing are simply not sufficient to assuage stakeholders’ concerns. Property developers and managers are expected to respond to investors’ and tenants’ mounting calls for, among other things, better air ventilation and filtration systems. Even then, the installation or modification of power-intensive climate control systems will, in many cases, require upgrades to a given facility and its building energy management system (BEMS). Otherwise, property owners and managers risk offsetting the health and safety gains accrued by these facility renovations with higher energy costs.
Clearly, the adaptation strategies available to CRE investors, owners and managers are numerous. Yet, decision-makers will soon learn that Covid-19-related building performance enhancements are only part of drawing tenants back into their facilities.
Property developers and managers must reassess their relationships with their tenants and occupants. These stakeholders are only human, after all, and the reasoning that underpins their decisions concerning their own health and safety — e.g., choosing whether to resume “normal” use of their environments — is often instinctual, automatic and built upon preconceived biases.
I believe effective communication is key to overcoming this obstacle. Unless CRE developers and managers provide the information their stakeholders need to address their fears and reestablish trust, then we can reasonably expect that any efforts to reopen facilities safely will be in vain.
In other words, this is a case of fighting uncertainty with certainty. Building operators must supplement their Covid-19-related health, safety and energy efficiency renovations with clear, concise and direct communication strategies. These communication strategies must be designed and implemented with not only the understanding that businesses will be the de facto messengers on economic recovery, but also that no single message will work for every stakeholder.
Success will be contingent upon the building operator’s ability to develop and deploy a multifaceted messaging plan. For this, the five senses are a useful guide. Building operators should seek to stimulate all five of their tenants’ senses – sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste – to ensure that their efforts don’t go unnoticed because not all tenants will be convinced a facility is safe for “normal” use by the same sensory stimuli they encountered in the past. Increased cleaning needs to be heard, seen, smelled and touched. This multilayered approach is essential.
The financial advantages of improving communication are clear. When occupants have evidence that their building operator is invested in their well-being, they are more inclined to remain as tenants. In that same vein, occupants who feel better supported by their building operators will be more inclined to reciprocate efforts toward building a more positive, mutually beneficial relationship. These are the foundational building blocks of a healthier, more resilient community. These are the fundamentals of trust.
Transparency and communication must be of paramount importance for building operators looking to reopen their facilities safely. Many building operators are sensible of the concomitant returns that they will accrue to both their reputations and bottom lines. Beyond these advantages, though, is the close alignment of these practices with the core principles of sustainable assets.
The need to adapt to the new normal is both immediate and unavoidable. The commercial real estate sector is inexorably caught in the middle of the tug of war over how to return to business as usual. Property investors, developers and managers must appreciate the unique space that they and their assets occupy in our communities and that they play an essential role in ensuring a resilient, healthier society in our new normal.
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