Management in real estate: powered by digital twins

The real estate industry, as a major contributor to global carbon emissions, is under intense pressure from investors and regulators to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into its core strategy. However, managers of large, heterogeneous building asset portfolios commonly face a key challenge: how to make data-driven strategic decisions that enhance sustainability and energy performance in the absence of detailed operational data for most assets. Traditional ESG approaches often rely on static, variable-quality reports and lack the forward-looking, quantitative tools necessary for effective strategic decision-making and risk management. This paper aims to address this challenge by proposing and validating an innovative dynamic ESG management framework. The framework establishes a dynamic simulation environment by integrating Digital Twin (DT) and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) technologies, aiming to enhance the dynamic capabilities of organisations for sustainable transformation systematically. Using 564 commercial buildings in Singapore as case studies, we conducted a multi-criteria scenario analysis of multiple Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) to measure their combined impacts in terms of energy, cost, carbon emissions and occupant comfort. Findings show that the framework can provide decision support beyond traditional approaches, revealing non-intuitive management insights such as that reducing internal heat gain has a greater impact on total energy consumption than directly increasing heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) efficiency, and quantifying trade-offs between financial returns, carbon emission reductions and social outcomes (occupant comfort). The core contribution of this paper is that it demonstrates how cutting-edge digital technologies can be utilized to transform ESG management from a passive compliance reporting activity to a proactive, dynamic governance function centred on sense-capture-reconstruct, which managers can use to assess capital investments, validate sustainability paths, and effectively manage the This supports managers in evaluating capital investments, validating sustainability paths, and effectively managing the complex interplay between environmental, social, and financial performance.