Owner-First Building Operating System
Lee Hoffman, co-founder of Runwise, on the operating system for buildings
This view says climate products only last when the buyer would still want them with no subsidy, no mandate, and no ESG budget. In buildings, that means software that cuts fuel bills, reduces tenant complaints, catches leaks or gas issues, and is installed in hours, not months. Runwise is positioned around immediate owner value first, while much of the ESG software wave centered on reporting, accounting, or other compliance work that sits farther from day to day operations.
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Runwise sells to owners who are cash constrained and overwhelmed, so the pitch is concrete. Save $80,000 a year, pay about $20,000 in year one, get a guarantee, and also get remote control over heating, cooling, leaks, and gas monitoring. That is a buy for NOI, not for virtue.
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The contrast is between operational software and accounting software. Persefoni automates carbon measurement and disclosure, which is valuable when regulation and reporting matter, but it still starts as a compliance workflow around collecting data and converting it into emissions figures, not directly changing how a building runs hour to hour.
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That is why the noise cleared when ESG hype faded. Products tied mainly to mandates or sustainability teams get pressured when budgets tighten. Products tied to utility savings and building operations can keep growing because the owner feels the benefit in rent economics, maintenance workload, and resident experience every day.
Going forward, the winners in climate software are likely to look more like infrastructure than reporting tools. In buildings, that favors systems embedded in the physical workflow, controlling equipment, proving savings quickly, and then expanding into more services once the hardware is already installed across a portfolio.