As sustainability becomes a priority for consumers and businesses alike, real estate and property managers have a unique opportunity to highlight their environmental efforts. 

Whether it’s reducing energy consumption, improving waste management, or adopting green construction practices, showcasing sustainability efforts can attract eco-conscious tenants, boost the building’s reputation, and drive engagement. 

One platform that can streamline this process is resustain.com, a solution that enables real estate professionals to manage and promote sustainable initiatives effectively. 

Leveraging social media amplifies these efforts, reaching a broader audience with the power to engage, educate, and inspire.

Why Social Media Matters for Sustainability in Real Estate

Social media channels provide a powerful way to communicate your building’s sustainable practices to a diverse audience.

With billions of users across platforms, social media is ideal for storytelling, visual content, and real-time updates, making it perfect for highlighting sustainability. 

Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even TikTok can attract followers interested in eco-friendly practices and green building initiatives.

Social media allows you to:

• Connect directly with potential and existing tenants.
• Showcase certifications (such as LEED or ENERGY STAR) and achievements.
• Educate the public about sustainable practices.
• Share real-time updates on improvements and achievements.

Building a Compelling Social Media Strategy

1. Define Your Sustainability Story

Before you start posting, clarify the key sustainable features and practices of your building. Your story might revolve around reduced energy usage, solar panel installation, or smart water management. The aim is to create a cohesive narrative that resonates with your audience. Think about questions like:

• What sets your building apart in terms of sustainability?
• What impact have your sustainability efforts made on the local community?
• How are tenants benefiting from a greener building?

Clearly defining these points will give your audience a reason to care and follow your journey.

2. Utilize Visual Content

People respond best to visual content, making platforms like Instagram and Facebook ideal for showcasing sustainable efforts. Share photos and videos of:

• Renewable energy installations (like solar panels).
• Green spaces around your building, such as gardens or green roofs.
• Energy-efficient lighting or other green technologies in use.
• Recycling initiatives or eco-friendly amenities.

To enhance engagement, consider using infographics that detail your environmental impact or the journey towards sustainability milestones.

3. Involve Your Audience

One of the best ways to boost engagement is by involving your audience. Encourage tenants or visitors to participate in sustainable practices and share their contributions on social media. For instance, you could:

• Launch a monthly photo contest encouraging tenants to share sustainable lifestyle tips.
• Share behind-the-scenes tours of sustainable initiatives, like recycling processes or energy-efficient systems, through live videos or stories.
• Hold Q&A sessions with experts or green team members to answer sustainability questions via interactive avatars.

This type of content not only promotes awareness but also strengthens community ties and encourages sustainable habits among tenants.

4. Promote Eco-Friendly Certifications and Achievements

If your building holds any green certifications or has received awards for its eco-friendliness, showcase them proudly. Certifications such as LEED, ENERGY STAR, or WELL are highly regarded in the industry and serve as excellent social proof. You could:

• Create a post series explaining what each certification means and the standards it represents.
• Share a video of the certification ceremony or event.
• Highlight key metrics achieved, such as energy reduction percentages, water savings, or recycling success rates.

Such posts add credibility to your sustainability story and help followers understand the significance of your efforts.

5. Feature Tenant Success Stories

Incorporate tenant testimonials or stories that emphasize the benefits they experience from a sustainable building. 

For instance, a tenant might appreciate the reduction in their utility bills due to energy-efficient systems or the wellness benefits from improved indoor air quality. This personal approach helps potential tenants envision the positive impact of eco-friendly buildings on their own lives.

Creating short interview clips, sharing quotes, or writing mini-case studies can add a human element to your social media content, making it relatable and engaging.

6. Share Educational Content

Educating your followers about sustainability topics strengthens your brand’s reputation as a leader in green practices. Share tips, best practices, and updates related to sustainability. For example:

• Post weekly eco-tips that tenants can adopt at home.
• Share news articles or research studies related to green building benefits.
• Collaborate with environmental organizations to broaden your reach and share expertise.

Educational content builds trust with your audience and can position your building as a thought leader in sustainable practices.

Metrics to Track Success

Tracking the success of your social media efforts helps you understand what resonates with your audience and refine your strategy. Key metrics to monitor include:

• Engagement rates (likes, comments, shares).
• Follower growth on each platform.
• Click-through rates to your website or sustainable initiative landing pages.
• Mentions and shares by tenants or environmental organizations.

Analyzing these metrics will help you identify the type of content your audience engages with most, allowing you to adapt and optimize future posts.

Conclusion

In today’s digital world you need essential online tools for sharing your building’s sustainability journey. With strategic content planning, you can showcase your commitment to the environment, involve your tenants, and inspire others to join the movement. Start today, and watch as your green building gains followers, boosts tenant satisfaction, and strengthens its place as a leader in sustainable living.

The post Leveraging Social Media to Showcase Your Building’s Sustainability appeared first on Green Prophet.

Key takeaways 

• Data centers, devices, ICT networks account for up to 12% of global energy use
• Cooling systems need electric power to keep equipment at the right temperature
• Green hosts use renewable energy or put energy back into the grid
• Manufacturing electronic equipment accounts for 80% of greenhouse gas emissions 
• Digital businesses should host multiple virtual servers on one machine
• Implementing liquid or free-air cooling can lower energy 

A server’s environmental footprint involves carbon emissions, extensive energy use, and other resource expenditures. Online activities like downloading files and streaming videos demand more energy and generate more emissions. Data centers that host servers account for 1% of the global energy demand. It is a low percentage but draws attention to the environmental impact. 

According to data of the International Panel on Climate Change, data centers, devices, and ICT networks make up 6-12% of the world’s energy use.

Blockchain, cloud gaming, and virtual reality will create even more demand for data services. Online shopping contributes as well. The number of people who shopped online increased by 68% between 2017 and 2021, reaching 2.3 billion worldwide. 

Green hosting mitigates the impact

Data centers use cooling systems to prevent overheating, but they increase water use and energy consumption substantially. They also use electric power for their storage systems, servers, and networking equipment, and cooling systems need electricity to keep all the equipment at the right temperature. 

High-capacity hosting centers also need a lot of electric power. Their machines hold and send data around the clock, and keeping them running takes a lot of energy. This is a big part of their environmental impact, which is a compelling reason to choose green web hosting.

Green hosts use renewable energy, put energy back into the grid, or buy certificates, such as Renewable Energy Certificates and Carbon Offset Certificates. 

Managing the heat produced by data center equipment

All the equipment in a data center produces heat. It’s important to manage this heat, but cooling systems also use a lot of energy, creating a vicious cycle that ultimately harms the environment.

Fossil fuels are a frequent source of power for conventional servers. When they are burned, carbon dioxide is released into the air, which is among the causes of climate change. The carbon dioxide produced is proportional to the energy these servers use. 

Ecological consequences in numbers 

IT equipment has a lifecycle with several stages, and each one impacts the environment.

Manufacturing, using, and disposing of electronic equipment all have ecological consequences. Manufacturing accounts for an estimated 80% of greenhouse gas emissions over the equipment’s life cycle. 

Daily use of servers and data centers is growing, which is becoming a real challenge for the economy. As of 2024, the digital sector comprises over 4% of the global carbon footprint. Terminals’ life cycles are the main reason for these emissions. Telecommunication networks and data centers contribute to a lesser extent.

Businesses that invest in corporate social responsibility must consider these issues. The technology used by some service and tech companies contributes to as much as 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. In France, the healthcare sector accounts for 8% of emissions. 

Best practices for digital businesses 

Digital businesses can reduce the number of physical servers by hosting multiple virtual servers on one machine. 

Implementing liquid cooling, free-air cooling, or evaporative cooling systems can lower energy consumption.

PUE, or Power Usage Effectiveness, evaluates how efficiently a data center uses energy. A lower PUE indicates higher energy efficiency. Industry leaders aim for PUE values close to 1.0, which means most energy goes to computing, not cooling.

The post Assessing the Environmental Impact of Your Digital Business Operations from Server Emissions to Data Center Energy Consumption appeared first on Green Prophet.

May 2024, the 12th consecutive month of record high temperatures, reminds us of the pressing need to address global warming. As consumers are already on the “green side of the force”, sustainability becomes essential to business success, and eco-friendly cloud computing is emerging as a key player. In this article, we examine how cloud solutions provide a green, flexible, and powerful way for you to thrive in a climate-conscious landscape.

Cloud computing vs. sustainable cloud computing

“Traditional” cloud computing allows you to effortlessly access on-demand infrastructure without the need for on-site installation and maintenance, easing the transition of IT services from conventional desktop deployments to decentralized data centers.

Green cloud computing extends this concept by using renewable energy to minimize energy consumption, significantly reducing carbon footprints.

How sustainable cloud and data centers go hand in hand

Data centers are fundamental to cloud computing, providing the crucial hardware and software resources necessary for optimal cloud service performance. This dynamic infrastructure delivers computational capabilities over the Internet, revolutionizing business operations.

Notably, studies reveal a remarkable trend: while computing output surges exponentially, energy consumption in data centers increases more slowly. This contrast underscores the efficiency gained through sustainable practices in cloud computing.

However, with the current rise of generative AI, the sustainability challenge is only going to get bigger. Models like ChatGPT are trained on massive amounts of data to create new content. This process of learning and inference requires significantly more computing power than the simpler Google searches of the past. This means that cloud and data centers need to be even greener than we are trying to make them now.

What is the ecological impact of cloud storage?

An examination of cloud sustainability and energy use reveals that global data center energy consumption is nearly equivalent to the annual consumption of Spain. Global CO2 emissions could be significantly reduced by moving to a green cloud model. Accenture says this shift could reduce overall IT emissions and carbon footprint by 5.9%, equivalent to the removal of 22 million vehicles.

Best strategies for achieving green cloud sustainability targets

Providers use a variety of methods to minimize the ecological impact of cloud services:

1. Utilizing renewable energy

Providers are utilizing renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power to reduce their carbon footprint. Notably, in May 2023, solar and wind energy surpassed fossil fuels for the first time in a full month in the European Union, highlighting a significant shift toward sustainable energy.

2. Enhancing infrastructure efficiency

Data centers are using AI and ML to optimize energy consumption. This includes reusing excess heat for nearby buildings, deploying advanced hardware, and locating in colder climates to reduce energy use.

3. Streamlining workflows

By automating routine tasks, balancing loads across servers, and optimizing mobile storage and network connections, resource utilization is maximized while energy consumption is minimized.

4. Promoting recycling and reducing waste

Recycling is critical in the digital age. Zero waste programs help reduce contributions to landfills, particularly through the responsible disposal of dangerous electronic waste.

5. Ensuring transparency and accountability

Vendors publicly share information and updates on their sustainability efforts to maintain accountability and demonstrate their commitment to environmental stewardship.

How to start your migration to a sustainable cloud?

Transitioning to green cloud computing presents several challenges, including migration complexity, data transfer issues, and regulatory concerns. Achieving sustainability goals requires careful management and strategic thinking. It’s good to find an IT partner you can trust to provide more than just the cloud itself, such as support and advice at every stage of this green journey.

The use of technology tools can facilitate a successful transition to green cloud technologies:

• Virtualization and containerization
  The use of virtual machines and containers allows several operating systems to run on the same hardware, reducing the number of servers needed and thus reducing energy consumption.
• AI-based resource scheduling
  Intelligent resource allocation based on historical usage data helps save energy.
• IaaS optimization
  Optimizing Infrastructure as a service includes efficient management of virtual machines and containers, which reduces the overall need for servers and data centers and promotes green IT practices.

What is the greenwashing trap and how to navigate it?

As the need for sustainable business practices grows, it is crucial to avoid greenwashing, which means claims of sustainability without meaningful action. There are some important steps you can take to not fall into this trap. First and foremost, choose vendors who openly communicate their sustainability efforts and show measurable results. Careful evaluation helps avoid deceptive claims and supports genuine environmental initiatives.

To thoroughly assess your provider’s cloud computing sustainability efforts, understand their measurement and reporting practices. Ensure they use diverse energy sources and examine how they address unforeseen environmental impacts. This alignment of cloud services with sustainability goals is essential.

Summary

With the increasing urgency to combat climate change, businesses face growing pressure to contribute. Adopting sustainable cloud computing leads the way in green IT solutions. Making thoughtful choices fosters a greener planet and spurs ongoing innovation. Vendors committed to cloud computing sustainability pursue advanced solutions, providing an ongoing stream of innovation and technological improvements for their clients and end users. In this path, modern enterprises are steering through an evolving landscape, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of cloud services and other IT solutions.

Prepared by: Comarch

About Comarch: Comarch is one of the largest IT companies in Europe, carrying out projects for leading brands from Poland and around the world in the most important economic sectors. With 16 data centers, 6 cloud regions, and 25+ years of experience, Comarch is the leading expert in data center, cloud, and IT services.

Learn more at https://www.comarch.com/trade-and-services/ict/

The post 5 Ways to Ensure Cloud Sustainability appeared first on Green Prophet.

Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA), a leading renewable energy company from Israel specializing in geothermal energy, rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last week to celebrate its 20th year on the exchange.

Ormat’s CEO, Doron Blachar said: “We are honored to celebrate Ormat’s history as a publicly traded company by ringing the NYSE opening bell. As we reflect on 20 years of trading on the NYSE, I am proud of what we have accomplished, and am particularly proud of the Company’s continued growth in developing and providing geothermal, storage and other renewable resources across the globe.

Since Ormat began trading on the NYSE, the geothermal giant grew revenues from $219 million to over $700 million. They have expanded their portfolio from ten electricity generation and recovered energy projects to 42 complexes including 13 energy storage facilities. Some countries they operate in include the US, Kenya, Guatemala, Indonesia, Honduras, and Guadeloupe. They provide clean power to companies like eBay and their servers in Utah.

Their energy generating capacity increased from 343 MW to 1.28 GW across geothermal, energy storage, solar PV and recovered energy, which includes 170MW/298MWh of energy storage capacity.While Ormat has been publicly traded for nearly two decades, its long-term goal is to reach our goal of 1.9 to 2.0 GW portfolio by the end of 2025.

Founded in 1965 as a family business, Ormat has been in the business longer than most of us have been alive. The company owns, operates, designs, manufactures, and sells geothermal power plants primarily based on the Ormat Energy Converter – a power generation unit that converts low-, medium- and high-temperature heat into electricity. The Company has engineered, manufactured, and constructed power plants, which it currently owns or has installed for utilities and developers worldwide, totaling approximately 3,200 MW of gross capacity.

Ormat’s current total generating portfolio is 1,277 MW, comprised of a 1,107 MW geothermal and solar generation portfolio that is spread globally in the U.S., Kenya, Guatemala, Indonesia, Honduras, and Guadeloupe, and a 170 MW energy storage portfolio located in the US.

How does geothermal energy collection work?

Many areas of the world have heat generated from the earth’s core and crust that makes its way to near the surface of earth. In geothermal energy production, a production well is drilled into a known geothermal reservoir and from here water is heated and the steam turns turbines which then drive an electricity generator. Power is then stored or transmitted to power lines.

Tapping into the earth’s crust to extract energy isn’t without its concerns. Remember from our archives the eruption in Indonesia shown not to be linked to Ormat? It’s a good one to read from our archives if you are thinking about investing in this space.

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