Over 30 years ago, an internationally recognized standard for describing the environmental performance of buildings was established in the UK. The standard is the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and has been honored with the Oscar Prize in the field of green building.

Buildings around the world that receive BREEAM certification are all well-regarded. On August 27, 2020, Landsea Green Life CEO Wu Xu received the first BIU V6 global operation certificate of residential projects from Li Qian, general manager of Building Research Establishment (BRE) China Branch. Shanghai Landsea Hongqiao Green County was awarded the certificate.

Figure | Shanghai Longshi Hongqiao Green County

Launching green operation was another new start for Landsea Green Life. Seven months later, the company signed an official strategic cooperation agreement with BRE, which helped upgrade the green operation concept to be an international and more standard one. In the domestic property management industry, few enterprises have green embedded in their DNA like Landsea Green Life. This differentiated development approach enables the company to create its core competitiveness.

Similar to the Landsea Holding, Landsea Green Life adheres to long-termism and sustainable development and considers green operation ability as its foundation for development. It has its own belief in space management, scenario creation, caring services, and green operation.

In long-term development, it has formulated a set of mature concepts for green operation and a featured ESG management system that is considered an important foundation for the company's development and sustainable community improvement. In Wu Xu's words, ESG management is not only reflected in social responsibility but also in operating efficiency.

Sustainability Perspective of Property Management

Over six months ago, Landsea Green Life released a notice on the establishment of a community organization named "The Landsea Friends" consisting of a Chicken-Rice Parent-Child Camp, Youngster Club, and Kidult Club. The Landsea Friends was established to satisfy the demands of property owners at different ages, warming the hearts of people who are living in cold reinforced cement and building warm communities.

Similar services that focus on property owners and communities are not unusual in Landsea Green Life. They are supported by the strategy and value system of the company. As a property management enterprise that puts ESG management in a fundamental position to drive community improvement, the company aims to improve customer satisfaction and retention when creating and implementing the development plan.

The ESG management structure is reflected in the building of sustainable communities by the company. Benchmarking the global sustainable development goal, ISO37120 sustainable city and community standard, SUC sustainable city and community standard, ISC sustainable community standard and other international standards, we have come up with the concept of "more inclusive, safer, and healthier" as three dimensions of a sustainable community.

"The concept of sustainable community proposed by Landsea Green Life aims to create a better community and promote cultural development among our customers. The communication between an enterprise and its customers ultimately relies on the high-quality services provided by the enterprise. Additionally, property management is also important, we should provide safer equipment and facilities in communities and operate more efficiently so as to prove better life experience for customers." —a quote from Wu Xu’s interview with Time Finance.

An inclusive community is built based on insights into the actual needs of different groups of people at different ages. Landsea Green Life has established communication channels such as customer interviews, communication meetings, notifications and announcements, and property owner committee meetings. Relying on insights into property owners' needs, the company has created a humanistic community life with these property owners. In 2020, the communities held 812 hours of cultural and entertainment activities. 25,000 people participated in these activities and the satisfaction level reached 90%.

In terms of safety improvement, the company implements "intelligent property + intelligent life" via a digital platform, using technical means such as cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence. The company has also developed an emergency response plan and regularly conducts emergency event drills within communities to improve their disaster resilience.

Green operation ability is the major advantage of Landsea Green Life for building healthy communities. Starting from the first green residential project of Landsea Holding, Landsea Green Life has gradually formed an advantage in the field of green building management. It is also the core competitive advantage of the company that is different from other property management enterprises.

"For example, we have a different environment management system from other property management enterprises. They may provide property management services after houses are delivered to the property owners. But we do the work when the houses are initially developed. We work closely with Landsea Green Properties in the early stage of real estate development. In the overall development process, we are involved in the control of energy consumption and pollutants. Relevant control standards are applied in the follow-up management." —Wu Xu, in conversation with Time Finance.

The green operation ability of Landsea Green Life is constantly improving, and the cooperation with BRE represents a starting point and an opportunity. Mr. Wu introduced the idea that studying the BIU V6 system will help Landsea Green Life continue to improve its professional operation ability from eight perspectives (green management, disaster prevention and resilience, health and welfare, energy consumption management, resource recycling, ecological environment, pollution control, and water resource management) to improve the community living quality, reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and create a green and healthier life for people.

The benchmark of Landsea Green Life’s operations is to provide caring property management services, complete value-added services for non-property owners, and diversified value-added community services. With differentiated competitive advantages, previously owned houses managed by the company are sold at a higher price than other similar products.

Lay a Solid Foundation to Compete

In 2020, the capital market saw 18 property management enterprises listed with a total of 50 billion RMB. The property management industry is considered a blue ocean industry. The potential income of two trillion means infinite possibilities. Now the competition is just beginning and capturing the market has become the consensus among players in the industry. Some players are growing strong through mergers and acquisitions while improving their internal capabilities at the same time.

Landsea Green Life is one such player with both internal and external growth. In the niche market, the company labeled with "green differentiation" is laying a solid business foundation to compete with other players.

The company does not rank first in terms of business scale. But it remains in a leading position with regard to its green operation ability. Its green building projects accounted for 34.1% and ranked 3rd among the Top 100 Property Management Companies in terms of GFA under management of green buildings that were certified with a Two-Star Label of Green Building Design Evaluation or higher-level label. The GFA of green buildings certified with labels of other Top 100 Property Management Companies only accounted for 4.3%.

As the number of green buildings is increasing and a "Double Carbon" goal (peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060) is proposed, green operation ability is becoming a must for property management enterprises. The advantages of Landsea Green Life formed in the past ten years will become obvious. As well as focusing on internal development, it is rapidly expanding its business.

Since the beginning of 2021, Landsea Green Life has signed property service contracts with Xuzhou Entrepreneurship Service Center of Hi-tech Zone and projects of Tianhua Mingyue Mansion, Shanhe Jiuzhu Mansion, Omnijoi International Cinema, Pinhui Zuoan Business Plaza, Taihe New Town School, Ruian Green Lake and Hill, and Haiying Neighborhood. The business formats in these contracts include office buildings, rental apartments, public facilities, industrial parks, hospitals, and bank branches.

By conducting operations with full contract, management consulting, and single contract approaches, Landsea Green Life is speeding up to formulate standards, optimize management, and accumulate experience in multiple business formats in order to build a high-quality comprehensive urban service system. From its first project, it has realized a breakthrough in project management. Many projects later, it has implemented the strategy of regional expansion.

The company also has strict disciplines in project expansion. According to Wu Xu, the company studies the market performance of previously owned houses in the community when selecting projects since such high-quality previously owned houses involved higher property management fees.

"We also focus on service scale and prevent remote management. Because operation efficiency is the key element to improve the management efficiency and performance of an enterprise. Concentrated management can bring more benefits than scattered long-distance project management." According to Wu Xu, Landsea Green Life generally considers three to five kilometers around a regional model project as the management radius. The service radius of a specific project will extend to 200 meters, covering surrounding streets and communities.

Source: Time Finance