Managing real estate risks and opportunities amid our continuously changing climate is a high-stakes challenge for organizations from all sectors. Climate impacts are inherently geographic and a geographic approach is already helping companies reassess their real-estate and asset portfolios. Applying location technology and sophisticated analytics, executives gain clarity in deciding which properties to keep, which to sell, and which to repurpose. Recently John Lenahan, Esri commercial services lead, discussed the strategy with Joel Glaze, global real estate optimization lead for ExxonMobil which stewards thousands of properties across six continents.
JOHN LENAHAN, ESRI: Why is now the time to reassess real estate portfolios?
JOEL GLAZE, EXXONMOBIL: Technology and data availability, but also looking at how we can create shareholder value and maintain the operational levels that we have. It’s an opportunity that we couldn't ignore. Colleagues past and present have dug in and done a lot of the digitization, a lot of the land record centralization, that set us up for where we can say, "Let's aggregate this." Geospatial technology and applications layered on top of this data, is where you can really start driving insights. It’s very easy to identify properties that you may have overlooked in the past that today hold incredible value.
LENAHAN: Why do this analysis in a geographic information system (GIS)?
GLAZE: Maps naturally bring people together. We're all used to throwing a big map down on a table and gathering around it. Ultimately laying this out in a visualization that's easy to understand and is a natural human way of analyzing properties, helped drive our primary decisions: Are we going to divest this land because we no longer need it, or are we going to optimize this land because we still need it.
LENAHAN: How does incorporating geospatial technology in property analysis improve collaboration between people and teams?
GLAZE: We've all seen it, right? You create a map or dashboard, and you put it up on a screen and you just see the excitement on people’s faces. They can see the connections – like this data set and that data set and how they fit together – or how there may be unanticipated benefits. Geospatial technologies help us visualize that data and align the party's expectations. That's where you get people who are excited to be part of the conversation and also passionate about helping drive those deals. It's contributing to some great conversations that help close deals.
LENAHAN: How has automation and AI factored into the work of real-estate optimization?
GLAZE: We have a long-term goal of moving toward automation and training computers to do some of the manual tasks. What I'm excited about is the geospatial modeling that we've been able to leverage. We can model uses, such as trying to determine which of our properties would be best for a new solar power generation site, or a new timber and forestry management program.
LENAHAN: How is geospatial technology helping uncover new real estate opportunities?
GLAZE: We were able to, through our modeling, find a navigable waterway that we owned that was being underutilized for the past 50 years, leading us to ask, "How can we use this property to bring additional value, to better help commerce and transportation?" In the last year, we have more than 100 examples of properties we’ve gone in to assess. It could be that one business unit no longer needs the land to support their operations. It's also bringing to light property that another team in the company, who might be looking for similar land, can bring a new use to it…When we look at this land, every single parcel has a story to tell, and there is a unique value proposition of why it came into our portfolio to begin with. Identifying that, and then saying, "How can we use that today?" – it's a dream job, honestly.
To hear more about how businesses use geospatial analytics to gain real estate insights, check out this episode of the Esri & The Science of Where podcast or this episode with CBRE, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms. For more information on applying a geospatial approach to commercial real estate, check out esri.com/real-estate.
Exxon Mobil Corporation has numerous affiliates. Nothing in this material is intended to override the corporate separateness of local entities.
