Kvist streamlines environmental certification for real estate and construction

When it comes to buildings, the green transition is happening at a pace too slow for comfort. Today buildings still account for 40 per cent of the total energy consumption and 36 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. “The building sector must accelerate its pace of transition; otherwise the EU’s climate goals for 2030 and 2050 will not be met,” explains Utigard.

To help to make the sector greener, environmental certification of buildings has come on the scene in recent years. But the certification process is highly complex, requiring digital solutions.

“Current solutions for environmental certification are mostly manual and time-consuming. They consist mainly of Excel spreadsheets and email threads. This won’t get us where we need to go,” he adds.

Kvist Solutions delivers a cloud-based platform for easier, more efficient environmental certification. The platform has been developed to meet the specific needs in the construction and real estate industry, allowing teams to collaborate on, analyse and execute environmentally ambitious projects.

“Our solution ensures great data capture as a crucial first step. Then it facilitates high-level data analysis, which allows property owners and builders to plan their way to 2030 and beyond,” says Utigard.

Digitalisation has several far-reaching benefits. By automating manual and repetitive tasks, small property owners and builders, previously unable to obtain environmental certification, are now able to do so. Larger players will have more time to focus on their area of expertise and manage several assets simultaneously. This includes designing and implementing sustainability measures in the buildings themselves.

“Our solution reduces the risk of making costly mistakes in properties and construction projects that could also harm the environment” says Utigard.

Moreover, property owners and builders that meet certification standards reduce their climate footprint and avoid stranded assets. They may also qualify for advantageous green loans and see the value of their buildings increase.

To boost energy efficiency in buildings, the EU has established a legislative framework that includes the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive. As almost 75 per cent of Europe’s current building stock is energy inefficient, Kvist’s digital platform comes at an opportune time for market success.

The solution is being used in Norway and Sweden, and the next target markets are the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. “Today we are able to help any property owner, manager, developer or builder in any country that uses BREEAM or other standards such as DGNB. As the platform is flexible and scalable, we will soon be able to support a wide variety of environmental certifications around the world,” concludes Utigard.

Kvist Solutions was awarded the Norwegian Construction Industry’s Innovation Award 2023.