The real estate sector faces increasing climate-related risks, with much focus traditionally placed on physical risks like extreme weather. However, transition risks — stemming from the shift to a low-carbon economy are equally critical. These risks include rising costs due to carbon pricing, market effects, technological changes, legal liabilities, energy efficiency regulations, and reputational risks, all of which can impact property values.

Understanding transition risks

Transition risks in real estate arise from regulatory changes, market dynamics, and evolving stakeholder expectations as the world moves toward sustainability.

Key risks include:

• Regulatory and policy shifts: New energy efficiency and carbon emissions regulations are being implemented globally. For example, the European Union’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires significant retrofitting to meet energy standards. Non-compliance could lead to hefty fines and reduced net operating income.
• Market repricing and stranded assets: Properties not meeting sustainability standards risk depreciation or becoming ‘stranded’ assets. Investors are increasingly favouring low-emission properties, applying higher discount rates to those seen as high-risk due to potential regulatory changes. This trend affects liquidity and raises financing costs, prompting a reassessment of investment strategies.
• Technological advancements and obsolescence: While innovations in green technologies, like smart building systems and renewable energy integration, can enhance property value, they pose risks for older buildings. The challenge lies in balancing retrofit costs against potential increases in market value and operational savings.
• Reputation and stakeholder pressure: Real estate companies face growing pressure from investors, tenants, and the public to demonstrate sustainability commitments. Failing to meet these expectations can result in reputational damage, loss of investor confidence, and reduced access to capital.

Also Read: The climate change and gender equality connection: How to support underfunded women-owned business

Key factors influencing transition risk

Two key factors play a significant role in measuring transition risk in real estate: the costs associated with retrofitting buildings to lower energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and technological advancements. The expense of reducing greenhouse gas emissions tends to increase non-linearly; the greater the desired reduction in energy use, the higher the incremental cost.

Fortunately, technological advancements are expected to gradually lower these costs, with potential reductions in energy expenses ranging from 15 per cent to 95 per cent.

Both property owners and occupiers can contribute to reducing carbon emissions, though property owners generally have more direct influence. Depending on a building’s age and design, retrofitting can sometimes be more costly than demolishing and rebuilding from scratch. However, even minor modifications can yield significant benefits. It’s also important to consider that demolishing a building generates carbon emissions.

To illustrate, achieving a 75 per cent reduction in carbon emissions could cost a property owner roughly US$500 per square meter or US$46 per square foot. Some property owners, particularly those committed to environmental sustainability or with larger financial resources, might opt for retrofitting despite it often being more expensive than demolishing and rebuilding.

Strategic approaches to mitigate transition risks

To navigate these transition risks, real estate firms must adopt proactive strategies:

• Portfolio decarbonisation: Aligning with global climate targets requires setting clear emissions reduction goals, conducting energy audits, and implementing upgrades. Green certifications like LEED or BREEAM can enhance asset appeal to ESG-focused investors.
• Dynamic risk assessment and scenario planning: Incorporating climate risk scenarios into traditional risk assessments helps firms anticipate the financial impact of various transition pathways. This proactive approach allows better positioning against future regulatory changes and market shifts.
• Leveraging green financing instruments: Green bonds, sustainability-linked loans, and other green financing options provide capital for sustainability initiatives. These instruments often come with favourable terms tied to environmental performance, encouraging further investment in green practices.
• Enhancing data transparency and reporting: Digital tools like IoT and AI can be utilised for real-time energy monitoring and predictive maintenance, optimising building performance. Enhanced reporting aligned with frameworks like TCFD or GRESB improves compliance and investor confidence.

Also Read: What startups need to know about Claims Code, the new rulebook for making credible climate claims

• Tenant engagement and collaboration: Green leases, where tenants share energy responsibilities with property owners, foster collaboration on sustainability goals. Such agreements incentivise both parties to invest in energy efficiency and waste reduction initiatives.
• Geographic diversification and asset resilience: Geographically diversifying assets can reduce exposure to region-specific regulatory risks. Investing in climate-resilient infrastructure, such as flood defences and advanced cooling systems, helps maintain asset value amidst evolving climate conditions.

Conclusion

As the shift to a low-carbon economy accelerates, real estate firms must navigate the emerging transition risks by embracing sustainable practices. By focusing on proactive strategies such as portfolio decarbonisation, dynamic risk assessment, green financing, and tenant collaboration, firms can mitigate these risks and position themselves as sustainable real estate market leaders. Embracing sustainability is not just an ethical or regulatory obligation but a business imperative for long-term success in a future low-carbon economy.

Accacia’s climate risk assessment platform helps real estate stakeholders navigate challenges by providing advanced analytics, enabling investors and developers to meet regulatory standards and focus on resilient regions, shaping a sustainable future for Singapore’s built environment.

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In the retail business, only one thing really counts – sales. If you are not selling the products on offer in your store, you will not be in business for long.

Historically, retailers have tried various tactics to try to get consumers to spend more money, some of them successful, some of them not.

For a long time, using promotions was a tried and tested method of getting consumers to “buy-in” to a particular store or a particular brand.

This was especially true before the advent of online shopping when consumers had to physically go to the store, and spend time there exposed only to the brands and offers of the store manager’s choice.

That day is long gone.

Nowadays, omnichannel consumers are comparing products and prices online before ever entering a bricks-and-mortar store, and when they do, they have a device with them to compare and research on the fly.

So, the question is: how can online retailers cash in on uber-connected consumers and get them to spend money in their online store as opposed to someone else’s?

The answer: gamify.

Defining gamification

Gamification is nothing new. Modern educational organisations use numbers, letters, and ranking systems to motivate students; military institutions, on the other hand, have been using badges and rankings for much longer.

What is relatively new, however, is gamification in a digital retail context.

Opinions differ on the best definition of gamification in this digital context, but the following general definition works well: “Gamification is the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts.”

Non-game contexts like, for example, online shopping.

Also Read: 3 reasons why cryptocurrencies and gamification go hand-in-hand

But can inserting a game-like element into your online store really make a difference to your bottom line? Well, in a word, yes. It all comes down to motivation.

Motivation

To market any product to anyone, we need to understand customer motivation. “What drives our potential customers to behave in the way they do? Why would they spend their precious time and (hopefully) money on our products or services?”, says Kirsty Robinson, the business owner of Up8 Marketing, specializing in design and marketing.

A successful marketer, therefore, is one who understands what motivates consumer behaviour. But that’s not enough. The marketer must then go on to validate the motivation and present a suitable solution to the consumer.

Motivation, however, can be broadly divided into two subtypes: intrinsic and extrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation is what drives us to perform or complete a task simply for the enjoyment of performing or completing said task. It could be a sport that we play just for the fun of it or a puzzle that presents us with a stimulating challenge.

Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is what drives us to perform or complete a task so that we can earn an external reward or avoid a punishment. Closely related to the pursuit of money, achievement, social status and respect, extrinsic motivation is what drags most of us to work in the morning, the gym in the evening, and urges us to buy that new dress, piece of jewellery or sports car.

If we dig a little deeper into motivation, six perspectives can be differentiated, which can become relevant in gamification.The six perspectives of motivation:

1. Trait

Individual characteristics such as the need for achievement, power, and affiliation. Individuals with these traits can be motivated if the gamified element emphasizes success, competition, and membership.

2. Behaviourist learning

Performance-based immediate feedback influences the probability of future behaviour. Individuals are motivated by immediate feedback, either positive or negative, and by the offer of rewards.

3. Cognitive

Motivation is dependent on situation-specific goals, expectancies, and values of consequences. Individuals are motivated if the gamified element contains clear and achievable goals and highlights the consequences of those goals.

4. Self-determination

Especially relevant for fostering intrinsic motivation, as mentioned above. Individuals are motivated by experiencing feelings of competence, autonomy, and social relatedness.

5. Interest

A content-specific motivational variable that evolves in interaction with the environment. Individuals are motivated by their relation to the subject matter of a task or environment.

6. Emotion

Cognitive and motivational processes can be influenced by instructional strategies. Individuals can be motivated if gamification decreases negative feelings like fear, envy, and anger; and increases positive feelings like sympathy and pleasure.

These motivational elements apply to all of us at some point or another, but another major contributing factor is personality.

Personality Type

Just like opinions, we’ve all got one. And by the time we reach adulthood, our personality is pretty much fixed. (Just like viewpoints, we’ve all got one. And by the time we reach maturity, our personality gets pretty much fixed.)

In gamification, personality types, or player types as they are often referred to, are split into four types:

1. Achievers – They are all concerned about points and status.

2. Explorers – Not bothered much about badges, but they want to see new secrets.

3. Socializers – They are fond of experiencing fun through interaction with other gamers.

4. Killers – They hold a winning attitude. Extremely happy to see other gamers lose.

In eCommerce, we are not in the business of designing games per se, so we can leave socializers and killers out.

Achievers and explorers, however, make up a huge slice of your potential customers; and it is these two personality types you can really engage with by adding gamification elements to your online store.

Buyer personas

Aspects of our personalities are often used by companies to build buyer personas.

Market research and real customer data are combined with certain personality types to create hypothetical customers. Marketing and sales departments use these buyer personas to plan their activities based on the perceived motivational factors that influence the personas.

In short, we attempt to appeal to imaginary unchanging consumers. But the very concept of an unchanging customer is naive at best and has to be complemented with contextual information. Our personalities may not change, but our needs do, as well as our moods.

For example, there are times when consumers are looking for a specific product and will be very focused on their activities to find the product they want. Any other product that is not relevant to their needs will be quickly filtered out or ignored completely.

At other times, however, consumers might not have a clear idea of what they are looking for; they may well be simply using the internet to find inspiration. With no clear need to be fulfilled, their mood plays a bigger role, and they are therefore far more susceptible to products that appeal to their mood.

So although the consumer was the same person in our scenario, their behaviour was very different due to their circumstances (context).

This scenario occurs all the time in online retail. Sometimes a potential customer will enter your site with a very specific need. It is often the case that the person will have done some Google research first, and will enter your site on a specific product page, having been directed there from Google. This is clearly a non-game context, but by gamifying the product page, you can turn the visit into a profitable customer action.

At other times, a visitor may stumble upon your online store while browsing. Using a gamified element on your front page to motivate a casual browser can result in a conversion that would otherwise have been a simple bounce.

In layman terms – by offering your customers, casual or otherwise, some variety of reward for interacting with your store, you provide them with the motivation to proceed and significantly increase the chances of conversion.

With the sheer amount of information at hand via Google, if a consumer has found their way to your online store, they are almost certainly interested in something that you offer.

However, the ubiquity of choice will come into play if you cannot provide them with a reason to stay in your store and buy from you.

A big appreciation to Rob Brooks for providing deep insights on the applicability of Gamification for eCommerce sales.

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Image Credit: Zany Jadraque

This article was first published on October 16, 2019

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Startup pitching competitions are for those who are ready to commit. These long-running events require passionate entrepreneurs to dedicate attention and resources over a period of a few months, or even travel overseas for inter-country competition.

After all the hard work put in, the results may not be satisfactory, and you may even realise your business idea is ill-conceived resulting in failure. For some, a pitching competition is for exposure while some come with an MVP ready to win cash money to grow and make their product known.

Here’s a summarized list of things to take note of when preparing to participate in a pitching competition.

1. Consider the competition

First thing first, register for the correct competition. If your business idea is focused on sustainability and greening, go for competitions which are themed towards conservation. You will find that the demographics of mentors and participants vary greatly from the theme of the competition.

Also Read: Let the games begin! The Top100 get set for the best pitching competition in Southeast Asia

By meeting people who are also working on ideas that answer a similar issue, you will find that the takeaways are much more applicable for improving your business.

Another thing to consider about the competition is the location. If you do not have the finances to travel, then sticking to local competitions will have to do. Imagine going for a three-day competition to France from Singapore.

The flight, accommodation and food costs will be significant. Unless the competition has a budget to sponsor teams in the finals. Even then, check whether there is a need to travel out of your home country for the earlier stages of the competition as those may not be sponsored.

2. Building strategic partnerships

Needless to say, most business successes rely on the ability to build a strategic partnership. At a pitching competition, you get to meet like-minded people who can add value to your business in some way. Start working on your networking skills before the competition.

It helps if you can make a lasting impression on the audience and judges. Find out in what ways you can shine. Experimenting in front of the mirror allows you to practise both your non-verbal and verbal communication.

Start by preparing a short introduction on your business idea which you will find useful when networking.  It helps to also take a recording of yourself to look back and consider if you have carried your body posture with confidence, or whether you enunciate your words correctly.

3. Practise your pitch

The method mentioned above generally works for pitches as well. But another main issue even experienced entrepreneur must tackle is the time limit set for each pitch. You find that you have so much to say yet too little time to get your idea across? Well, that should not be the case.

The time limit set for different stages of the competition all has its purpose.

As the competition builds up to the finals, the time limit gets longer, and you find that you have more time to describe your idea in detail. But what about the earlier stages? Hit hard on the main attraction.

Instead of trying to explain how your business works be short and sweet. Tell the judges what your business is, who it is for and how they benefit.

If your competition has a theme which most do, make sure you answer that too. Make sure to articulate the problem you are solving clearly. This will keep your judges attentive and a clear understanding of the relevance of your business.

This not only helps you keep track of your time it also allows you to practise your pitch over a few times which can give a better presentation even when you get the nervous jitters on the competition day.

Additionally, you may want to consider getting a few friends to observe your pitch and have them ask you questions. That way, you may be able to anticipate questions the judges will ask and be more confident when answering them.

Also Read: How should founders dress when pitching your startup to a VC?

Get your friends to pay attention to any possible habits that you have such as standing your weight on one leg, keeping your hands in your pockets, etc. These are things which are hard for us to pick up ourselves so having others watch and providing feedback can help.

4. Constantly receive expert feedback

With your business introduction ready, you can start conversing with experts and professionals during the pitching competition. The more you do that, the more likely you are to receive valuable feedback.

There is no successful business that rejects the input of feedback. By pitching your idea to people, they may see a potential error or loophole in your business which you are unable to spot.

This is normal and that is the reason we should speak with mentors who have built upon years of failures and successes.

They can provide the expertise new entrepreneurs require to help their business grow by building a suitable mindset needed at various stages of a business.

Hence, work with mentors before during and even after the pitching competition who are experts in your enterprise. When meeting mentors, always ask yourself this question: How can they be of help to your business?

These are the tips that we recommend entrepreneurs to consider before they sign up for any competition. 

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit:

StartupX is an innovation consultancy that specialises in consulting for large corporates, running innovation challenges, internal hackathons, innovation workshops, demo days, roadshows, recruitment drives and any related startup-corporate events.

We are community builders, innovation catalysts and changemakers supporting the early-stage startup ecosystem in Asia. To find out more about this competition, visit the StartupX website and follow theStartupX Facebook and Instagram accounts for more updates.

This article was first published on October 14, 2019

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Starting a business is never easy, but building a leadership development company from the ground up has been one of the most challenging—and rewarding—experiences of my life, especially since I incorporated in May 2020, at the height of COVID-19.

From navigating uncharted waters as a first-time founder to weathering economic shifts, market changes, and personal hurdles, I’ve learned that resilience isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a survival skill! The biggest hurdle I faced was going from old school founder to new age digital creator.

My journey has been filled with uncertainty, but it’s also been a powerful teacher, shaping my approach to business and life in ways I never expected.

The early days: A leap of faith

When I first decided to launch my leadership development company, I knew I was stepping into the unknown. I came from humble beginnings, with no family background in business or entrepreneurship to guide me.

My decision to start this journey wasn’t rooted in a perfect plan but in a deep belief that I could make a difference in the lives of leaders who, like me, often struggled with feeling overwhelmed and undervalued. From my days in consulting and working with highly competitive industries, I always knew I wanted to make a difference to rid the world of corporate toxicity. (Cue the Horrible Bosses movie).

The early days were tough. I was learning as I went, often making mistakes that left me questioning my path. There were moments when the pressure felt insurmountable, especially as I juggled the responsibilities of a caregiver alongside building my business. Yet, every setback became an opportunity to learn and grow, pushing me to become more resourceful, adaptable, and focused.

The failure I went through lasted 19 months, and here are the top three lessons I learned:

Lesson one: Embrace uncertainty as a catalyst for growth

The first major lesson I learned was that uncertainty is not the enemy. In fact, it’s often the best catalyst for growth. There were countless times when I faced decisions without clear answers—pivoting business models, managing cash flow in lean months, or adapting to shifting client needs. Instead of resisting the unknown, I started to see it as an invitation to innovate.

Also Read: How South Korea’s smart city startups curbed the spread of COVID-19

One of the most pivotal moments came when I realised that my approach to uncertainty was shaping my company culture. By embracing challenges with a mindset of curiosity rather than fear, I created a space where my team and I could experiment, take calculated risks, and find new solutions.

They taught me and I guided them. Same as what we guide leadership through, connected leadership for peak performance. This adaptability became a cornerstone of our success, allowing us to navigate the ups and downs with resilience and creativity. Knowing we are united as a team.

Lesson two: Resilience is built through self-compassion, not just grit

Resilience is often portrayed as a relentless drive to keep pushing forward, but I’ve learned that it’s just as much about knowing when to pause, reflect, and take care of yourself. A heartfelt resilience instead of a “not listening to your intuition” resilience. As a leader, it’s easy to fall into the trap of constant hustle—believing that you have to be “on” all the time. However during periods of high stress, I found that the key to maintaining resilience was actually self-compassion.

I started setting boundaries, prioritising my well-being, and allowing myself the grace to make mistakes. This shift not only helped me avoid burnout but also made me a more empathetic and effective leader. When I showed up as my best self, I was better equipped to guide my team through challenges and inspire them to stay resilient, too.

Lesson three: The power of connection and community

In times of uncertainty, connection becomes a lifeline. I learned early on that I couldn’t do this alone—I needed the support, wisdom, and encouragement of others. Whether it was leaning on mentors, engaging with fellow entrepreneurs, or simply being vulnerable with my team, these connections helped me stay grounded.

Building a community around my business also became a strategic advantage. By fostering authentic relationships with clients, partners, and industry peers, I created a network of support that amplified our impact. It reminded me that even in the face of uncertainty, we are never truly alone; there’s always a collective strength to draw upon.

Shaping my long-term strategy: Resilience as a business imperative

The lessons I’ve learned are not just personal—they’re actively shaping the long-term strategy of my business. I’m focused on creating a company that thrives amid change, not just survives it. This means investing in ongoing learning and development, embracing flexibility in our offerings, and maintaining a culture that values well-being as much as performance.

Also Read: 3 easy ways for startups to attract global customers

One of my key priorities moving forward is to embed resilience into our leadership programs, teaching others the skills and mindset shifts that have been so transformative for me. By helping leaders build resilience, I believe we can create ripple effects that extend beyond individual success, positively impacting organisations and communities alike.

As I look ahead, I’m committed to leading with intention, compassion, and a willingness to adapt. The road may be unpredictable, but I’ve learned that uncertainty is not something to fear—it’s a powerful force that, when harnessed, can lead to profound growth and transformation.

A final boost

If there’s one thing I want to leave you with, it’s this: resilience is not about having all the answers. It’s about showing up, learning, and adapting—day after day, even when things feel uncertain. Knowing that growth is led by you but also as a team, a collective, an ecosystem rising.

As I continue on this journey as a founder, I’m grateful for every lesson, every challenge, and every moment of growth. They’ve not only shaped me but have also laid the foundation for a business that I’m proud to lead into the future. Always appreciate your connections and stand strong for your purpose and why you built your idea. This in itself will get you through the rough seas and into calm waters.

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