With a master’s degree in sustainable development, focused on climate calculations, and five years of experience in energy follow-up, she helps property owners across the Nordics turn their energy data into figures they can trace and defend. She works with both EG Mestro and EG Enerkey to structure, review and follow up energy data for portfolios of all sizes.
Real estate companies collect more energy data than ever. In Camilla Lindberg’s experience as a Sustainability and Energy Consultant at EG Software, far fewer have someone whose job it is to check the quality and analyze insights. She explains what happens when nobody does, and how one company with buildings across Europe now has an expert go through its figures every quarter.
The sustainability manager at a property group with buildings in a dozen countries has a report due. An auditor asks a simple question: where does this electricity figure come from? The answer sits somewhere in an inbox, in a spreadsheet from another country, or on an invoice someone typed in by hand last spring.
In Camillas work with real estate companies, this is the situation she meets most often. The data exists. What's missing is someone who checks it regularly and knows what the numbers mean.
In the teams Camilla works with, one person at group level usually pulls the figures together by hand. The group she is working with now has done a lot right and still hits that wall.
It started in one country, where the local division used EG Mestro to track each tenant’s monthly energy use for re-invoicing. When a new sustainability manager joined at group level, they saw that the same data collection was what the group needed for its sustainability reporting. So EG began rolling it out across the rest of the portfolio, one division at a time.
The energy data was now in one place. The reporting aspect was not quite there though. Figures still had to be gathered, checked and pieced together by hand.
“It was a lot of emailing and copying figures into different Excel files. Send me that invoice. Where’s it from? Okay, let’s add it.”
So the group asked EG a new question: could EG Mestro do more than collect the data, and support the reporting too? It could, but a portfolio spread across many countries takes time to get right. That’s where Camilla came in, to guide the group through the setup, division by division.
To analyze properties, you first need comparable data across countries. But this is where definitions get in the way.
Floor area is the clearest example. In one country, balconies count. In another, they don't. Some countries measure from the outside of the façade, others from the inside.
If you compare buildings without knowing that, you're comparing numbers that don't mean the same thing.
Meter names were in the local language. Some data arrived hourly from building management systems, some from invoices typed in by hand. Climate reporting adds one more layer: the group has to separate the energy it controls from the energy its tenants control, because that decides which emissions it reports as its own.
Before any regular follow-up can start, the structure must be agreed and written down, one division at a time.
Camilla started with a workshop with the group sustainability team in late summer. Now she is going through each division in turn. Together they decide:
Which meters are for reporting (invoice data an auditor can check) and which are for day-to-day follow-up (hourly data)
What should be comparable across the portfolio? This determined the setup. On what level should we measure? Buildings, properties, site-level or property groups compared to property groups?
Which emission factors apply in each country, and where they come from
Who updates each file, and when
Each division gets its own documentation, and meter names are being translated into English so anyone who logs in understands what they're looking at. The aim is for every division to be ready for reporting by the end of the year.
“The group told me early on that structure was what they'd been missing. One file, one person responsible for it, a clear date for when it's updated. It sounds simple, but that's what makes the data hold up.”
Picture portraying step 1 of 2 of outsourced energy management, Sustainability and Energy Management as a Service
Once the structure is in place, it needs regular checks to stay that way. A meter can stop sending data without anyone noticing it. A building's electricity use can creep up for months before someone spots it.
So from January, the group's subscription includes a quarterly energy meeting with each division. Before each meeting, Camilla goes through the division's data in Mestro. Part of that check is automatic. EG Mestro flags deviations in the data, such as a meter that stops reporting or consumption that suddenly jumps. AI is getting good at finding patterns like these. Deciding what they mean still takes someone who knows the buildings. Is electricity up because a new tenant moved in, or because a ventilation unit runs all night? Do balconies count as floor area in this country? Those answers come from people, and that’s where she spends the meeting time. In the meeting, they look at what has changed. Electricity is up in this building, so what could be behind it? These alarms need attention. These manual readings are missing.
"They don't have to log in and check everything themselves. I do that, and then I tell them what has happened in terms of energy consumption in their portfolio, and what I'd recommend doing next."
Picture portraying Step 2 of outsourced energy management. Review rythm and follow up every quarter (or other pre-determined cycle) within Sustainability and Energy Management as a Service
The cost of skipping follow-up show up the day someone asks where a number comes from.
Banks offering green loans tend to want to see where the energy data comes from. Environmental certifications for buildings, such as BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), need the same structured data. This group sees the work as preparation for future certification too.
The quieter costs are missed savings and a report that depends on one person's inbox.
Reporting rules keep changing, and some EU requirements have been scaled back. The questions from auditors, banks and investors remain.
It takes time at the start and a fixed rhythm after that.
For a group with more than ten divisions, the setup is a substantial project. Smaller portfolios need much less. Some need a few workshops to check that everything is in order, then a meeting every quarter or twice a year.
If you already have an energy manager who works in your energy platform every week, you probably don't need this. It's for portfolios where nobody has that time, or where all the knowledge of the system sits with one person.
Start by answering the auditor's question for one building
Go back to the question from the start: where does this electricity figure come from?
Pick one building in your portfolio and trace last quarter's electricity figure back to its source. Is it an invoice or a meter reading? Who entered it, and could a colleague find it without asking? If that takes more than a few minutes, the same is probably true across the portfolio.
A figure you can trace is worth more than a perfect total nobody can explain.
Before each meeting, an EG energy consultant goes through your EG Mestro or EG EnerKey data. In the meeting, you get the findings and clear recommendations for what to do next.
What it is: Regular meetings where an EG energy consultant goes through your data in EG Mestro and turns it into clear findings and next steps.
How it works: Scoping and structure first - defining your needs and desired outcome. When aligned: Meetings every quarter. Before each meeting, the consultant gathers and analyses your data. In the meeting, you go through consumption, portfolio performance and recommendations. Support between meetings keeps your energy work moving.
Built on: The Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle used in ISO 50001, the international standard for energy management. No certification needed.
Who it's for: Property owners and organisations in need of regular follow-ups by and external energy consultant.
Works with:
EG Mestro: the Basic, Cost, Sustainability and Energy Analysis modules.
EG EnerKey: Efficient and Forerunner.
How it's sold: An annual subscription that runs until you cancel it. Hours per meeting are adjusted to the size and complexity of your portfolio.
With a master’s degree in sustainable development, focused on climate calculations, and five years of experience in energy follow-up, she helps property owners across the Nordics turn their energy data into figures they can trace and defend. She works with both EG Mestro and EG Enerkey to structure, review and follow up energy data for portfolios of all sizes.