The real estate industry needs to collaborate and embrace technology as it works to reduce carbon emissions or else face having external mandates forced upon it, says Peter Gajdoš, a partner at venture capital firm Fifth Wall.
Speaking on the Nareit REIT Report, Gajdoš, who co-leads Fifth Wall’s climate technology investment team, noted that although tackling carbon emissions will take decades, the real estate industry should see it not as a threat but as an opportunity to cooperate. “Let’s work together, let’s find solutions because otherwise I believe the sector will be mandated to fix the carbon problem and I’d rather see the sector proactively working on this and finding solutions ourselves rather than a top-down approach from the government,” Gajdoš said.
Fifth Wall formally launched its Climate Tech Fund about a year ago and has raised over $140 million so far. Gajdoš noted that several REITs have already invested in the fund, including Equity Residential (NYSE: EQR), Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc. (NYSE: HPP), Invitation Homes Inc. (NYSE: INVH), and Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM).
According to Gajdoš, existing technologies will only solve about 50% of the carbon emissions problem. “The long-term goal is to find brand new technologies that will revolutionize construction and operation of the built environment,” he said. “If we apply new technologies here, we have the opportunity to completely change the trajectory of not only the real estate sector but the planet.”