Revolve Report: Digital real estate and its impact on governance

Clifford Chance is a member of REvolve, the Digital Real Estate Insight Council, and is pleased to share the latest paper from the group exploring the governance of buildings whilst in operation, in particular digital governance, which is becoming so important as the digital transformation of Real Estate continues to gather momentum. It will cover some of the digital governance imperatives, what happens when they are neglected and the action required to take the Real Estate sector from behind the curve to on the front foot.

Introduction

The ‘Environment, Society and Governance’ (ESG) is towards the top of the agenda for many in the property sector; investors are increasingly considering ESG factors in their decisions and large occupiers are demanding buildings that meet their own ESG expectations. With both investors and occupiers engaged, we are seeing this filter through to the rest of the market; planning, construction, property management and valuations are all being affected.

However, the top priority for most organisations today is the ‘Environmental’ element of ESG, with energy and carbon emissions driving the narrative. ‘Society’ tends to get less attention and ‘Governance’ even less so, especially with regards to the digital agenda. Yet governance is a huge and important topic; it covers organisations and buildings, and considers due diligence to risk management, reputation management to data strategy, decision-making processes to Anti Money Laundering checks and insurance coverage to board structure.

Section 1: Governance in a digital world