Most people associate carbon emissions with vehicles and power plants. And while those certainly are part of the carbon equation, about 38 percent of all energy-related CO2 emissions come from the construction and operation of buildings – homes, office buildings, warehouses, and other commercial buildings. Residential energy use accounts for roughly 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. [1] While Invitation Homes accounts for an incredibly small sliver of the roughly 93 million households in the U.S., we are laser-focused on doing our part to make our 80,000+ homes energy efficient with the goal of building a more sustainable future.
Protecting the environment is critically important to Invitation Homes. We believe that advancing efforts that make our company more innovative and our processes more sustainable can help encourage widespread emission reductions in our industry.
As part of our effort to support innovative solutions for residential sustainability, we recently announced our investment in Fifth Wall’s Climate Technology Fund. The purpose of the fund is “to invest in world-leading companies creating new technologies to decarbonize the built world,” and will position Invitation Homes at the forefront of the search for climate-friendly home solutions. Our investment will directly benefit and further the fund’s goal of discovering technologies that address every aspect of the carbon problem across all stages and within all asset classes of the global real estate ecosystem – from the materials and construction of homes to their operation and end-of-life.
On the operational side of things, we utilize Smart Home technology to enable residents to manage certain processes in their homes, including temperature control, which can increase energy efficiency and save our residents up 15 percent on their energy bills. We appreciate technologies like this that help us advance sustainable practices and improve our resident experience. That’s why we’re also an investor in SmartRent, which recently announced its intent to go public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company.
Invitation Homes also recently wrapped up a pilot with Elevation Home Energy Solutions to deploy Elevation’s home energy savings technology via the SmartRent home automation platform. The technology enables Elevation’s proprietary algorithm to reduce energy consumption during peak electricity utilization times in SmartRent-equipped homes. This will not only help our residents save money but allow our homes to use energy more efficiently. We are exploring wider deployment of this technology.
While these investments and actions represent a firm commitment by Invitation Homes to a more sustainable future for single-family homes, they are just one part of our larger commitment to the highest Environmental, Social, and Governance standards and our effort to be a better corporate citizen. Our current operational measures aimed at sustainability include water-saving landscaping in arid locations; low-flow plumbing; electronic work orders that reduce paper waste; route optimization and stocked vehicles that decrease drive time for maintenance technicians; and an air filter home delivery program that helps provide better air quality in homes and improve HVAC efficiency. A full view of the company’s environmental sustainability efforts can be found here .
Our hope is that leading the single-family rental industry both in size and innovation will be a positive force for change and drive a more sustainable future for housing.
[1] Benjamin Goldstein, Dimitrios Gounaridis, Joshua P. Newell, “The carbon footprint of household energy use in the United States,” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Aug 2020, 117 (32) 19122-19130; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1922205117.