Digital Twinning Improves The ROI On Sustainable Smart Buildings

As digital innovation transforms the real estate industry, more buildings are creating a digital twin. A digital twin is a dynamic, virtual replica of a physical asset.  In smart buildings, digital twins monitor and control IoT networks at the device and sensor level. As more precise data is collected at more touchpoints of connectivity, twinning improves the intelligence and performance of smart buildings. 

Twinning is also replicating the investment success of smart sustainable buildings. Investors place a premium on sustainable companies for operating more efficiently. As twinning improves the performance of smart buildings and other smart assets, more investment dollars are being invested in the sector. Like the sustainable investment niche, a digital twin investing platform for real estate is developing.

Benefits of Digital Twin Investing for Real Estate 

Most companies deploying IoT are creating digital twins. By 2021, most large companies will be using digital twins and realizing 10 percent operating improvements. This value creation potential is driving investors to digital twinning. 

In real estate, investor confidence in the prop-tech sector—the digitization of real estate—increased 0.3 points to 8/10 in 2019. Investment in the U.S. prop-tech market increased 69 percent to $9 billion in 2019. While prop-tech includes the digitization of all forms of real estate business, a focused digital twin investing platform for real estate is developing.

How Digital Twinning Creates Value

Digital twinning is not a building block to real estate digitization but a complete virtual replication of a building. Connected to smart sensors in the real world, the digital twin tracks everything from how people move through buildings to energy management and maintenance. 

All aspects of a building can be modeled. Digital twins monitor at the level of each piece of equipment, pipe, and circuit, providing deeper data analysis. The twin can also connect its BIM system to potentially thousands of external data sources. Machine learning and artificial intelligence make building smarter and smarter.  

The ability to draw on and extrapolate big data from internal and external sources brings unsurpassed insight into real estate planning, construction, and management. Operating efficiencies can be further improved by networking digital twins. Digital twin systems within buildings or across buildings can be connected. 

Many building owners are leaving 25-to-30% of their savings from smart buildings unrealized. Digital twinning can close this performance gap by improving the performance of smart building technology.  In so doing, digital twinning increases the return on investment in sustainable investments.