The property sector is under increasing pressure to deliver on sustainability. Rising energy costs, stricter regulations and growing tenant expectations mean that greener buildings are no longer optional, they’re essential. Technology is at the heart of this transformation, helping owners and investors cut emissions, reduce costs and enhance asset value. Here’s how:

Smart building management systems

Modern building management systems (BMS) integrate heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and power into one intelligent platform. These systems monitor and adjust operations in real time, responding to occupancy and external conditions. Studies show BMS can cut energy use by up to 30% through optimisation and predictive maintenance.

IoT sensors and data analytics

IoT sensors track energy consumption, occupancy and environmental conditions. Combined with analytics, this data helps identify inefficiencies and optimise performance. This supports ESG compliance and reduces waste.

Energy-efficient upgrades

LED lighting with smart controls: LEDs use up to 90% less energy than traditional bulbs.
AI-controlled HVAC: AI-driven systems can reduce HVAC energy use by 8–19%.
Renewable energy integration: Solar panels and heat pumps lower reliance on fossil fuels and cut carbon emissions.

Digital twin and simulation technology

Digital twins create a dynamic, data-driven replica of a building that mirrors real-world conditions in real time. This allows owners to test scenarios before committing to physical changes.

For example, you can simulate the impact of adding solar panels on energy consumption and carbon output, helping you forecast savings and validate ROI before installation.

Green building certifications

Tech-enabled buildings are better positioned for certifications like BREEAM, LEED and WELL, which validate sustainability practices and enhance asset value.

Automation and centralised IT

Automated workflows streamline maintenance and lease administration, reducing labour and energy costs. Centralised IT unifies disconnected systems, such as access control, HVAC and lighting for greater efficiency.

AI and machine learning

AI analyses large datasets to forecast energy demand and recommend retrofits. This enables smarter investment decisions and maximises ROI while reducing environmental impact.

Sustainable construction and circular economy

Sustainability starts with how buildings are designed and built. Digital tools enable low-carbon materials, modular construction and design for reuse, reducing embodied carbon and waste.

Optimising logistics is equally important. CACI’s work with major retailers shows that advanced route planning and transport management can cut supply chain emissions by up to 25%, helping construction projects lower costs and support circular economy goals.

Real-world impact

Smart buildings can reduce energy costs by up to 40% through integrated management systems.
Examples include The Edge in Amsterdam, which generates more energy than it consumes, and The Crystal in London, which achieved BREEAM Outstanding and LEED Platinum certifications.

Ready to make your buildings greener?

Technology is no longer just about efficiency, it’s about future-proofing your assets and meeting sustainability goals. At CACI, we help real estate leaders harness data, digital tools and smart systems to deliver measurable impact.

Get in touch today to explore how we can support your ESG strategy and make your portfolio greener, smarter and more valuable.

As attitudinal segmentations are usually based on surveying a smaller sub-group and not based on data which can be easily applied to customers on your database, bridging attitudinal segmentations can be a challenge and is not always a straightforward process. However, it is a great way to provide a consistent customer experience.

So, what is attitudinal segmentation and what considerations should an organisation have when it comes to their approach for bridging an attitudinal segmentation?

What is attitudinal segmentation & how to bridge an attitudinal segmentation

Attitudinal segmentations are typically created using data from quantitative surveys. They can be a powerful tool for delivering rich insights into customer and prospect mindsets and provide a valuable framework for organisations to engage customers effectively through an in-depth understanding of their needs, attitudes and motivations.

Being able to treat customers consistently throughout the marketing funnel helps to establish a relationship with them and deliver resonating messages that will drive increased engagement. Once someone becomes a customer, they will expect to see the same messages that originally struck a chord with them reflected and developed in their ongoing journey with you.

The economic and social disruption since the pandemic has permanently changed consumers and their expectations of brands, so ensuring your online messaging aligns with these changes is increasingly important. We consistently see organisations that are personalising messaging for their customers increasing their market share, net promoter scores, return on investment and profitability. With this in mind, being able to make your attitudinal segmentation actionable on your database should be a key part of your customer engagement strategy.

Key questions to address the challenges of bridging an attitudinal segmentation onto your customer base

There are no two ways about it – data is key to tackling this challenge and making it actionable. To achieve this, you should ask the following five questions to get started:

• Where and who created the segments? Were the segments created by your organisation or a media/research partner? This is pertinent to understanding if you can get to the raw data or in understanding the level of granularity of data you can obtain.
• What data is there? Do you have access to the responder level data or tables by segment or Pen Portraits? The data you can reach will determine the method of bridging that can be used.
• Were questions only posed to your customer base or to the wider population? What types of questions were asked and were they personal to the organisation or more generalised? This can impact the resulting solution.
• Are there any behavioural traits reported within the data that were part of the same survey? Wider data beyond pure attitudes can be helpful to model this back to the database.
• Were any demographic questions asked or was postcode captured? This can help the process of creating the link between segments and customer base.

While bridging an attitudinal segmentation can be challenging, these questions will help identify how simple or complex the solution will be.

Key techniques for bridging attitudinal segmentation

Depending on the granularity of the data your organisation has access to, the following techniques can be leveraged:

• Responder level data: As this is the most granular form of data, it produces the most accurate results. Techniques here include modelling each of the segments by using a mix of the responder data and CACI’s own data to score this up against a customer database before validating this against the responder panel.
• Tables by segment: We can compare each customer’s results to the segment averages based on a combination of multiple data points. Validation is key through profiling and sense checking the segment distribution.
• Pen Portraits: Here we would use a rules-based approach to recreate segments based on high-level views of the segment to capture the different blend of information that you have to bridge the data. As before, the final step of validation is key to ensuring the solution’s accuracy.

If raw data is inaccessible or unavailable, the following alternative methods can support:

• Adding golden questions to market panels: This will provide more demographic and behaviour traits which support the bridging process.
• Surveying the whole customer base with golden questions: Responses can often be skewed to particular segments, however, and some consumers may be more inclined to answer than others.

Considerations at the start of an attitudinal segmentation journey

Including key customer traits

When beginning an attitudinal segmentation, our first recommended consideration would be to include some key customer traits. Including additional questions such as demographic markers (postcode, gender and age band) will support segmentation mapping on to the database.

Cross-team engagement

Cross-team engagement will be invaluable to ensure the segmentation meets goals and drives value. This will help flesh out what the segmentation will be used for now and in the future, as well as gauging what you need from the segmentation and building it accordingly. It is also pertinent in getting buy in as early as possible to ensure teams are engaged when the solution is rolled out.

Backing segmentations with research

Another solution would be to build the segments first and then use research to enhance them with attitudinal values. This solution can work well with one of the benefits of running focus groups to bring life to the segments rather than using the attitudes to drive the segmentation.

Ultimately, it is about finding the right balance that works for your organisation based on wants and needs. Attitudinal segmentations can bring excellent insights but are limited in their applications across a database. Fundamentally, it is a process of ensuring that through engaging the whole organisation, your solution is optimised to meet strategic aims.

How CACI can help

CACI is in a unique position with a UK-wide dataset on all adults, encompassing over 800 variables that we can use to profile and create proxy variables to support the possibility of a successful bridging exercise. We help solve the challenges associated with bridging attitudinal segmentation for leading organisations many times each year.

To learn more about getting the most out of your segmentation and how CACI can support you through this journey, get in touch and we can discuss your challenges in more detail.

Merry Hill is one of the largest regional malls in the UK, encompassing over 200 shops such as major flagships Primark, M&S and Next. Sovereign Centros from CBRE were appointed asset managers of the former Intu asset in 2022, and have since expanded the retail, F&B, and leisure offering, with recent high profile openings including Hollywood Bowl and national debuts for Harvey Norman and XF Gym.

When Merry Hill chose to invest in renovating the M&S flagship store, they needed to quantify the impact changes would have on performance. This required a robust simulation of the future turnover and resulting footfall. In this blog, we uncover the steps that CACI took to help Merry Hill understand the impact of refurbishing M&S and gain investors’ approval to execute it.

How CACI evidenced outcomes of refurbishing Merry Hill’s M&S

CACI compiled a report covering an overview of M&S’ current performance, the impact of a refurbishment on the retailer’s turnover and the cross-shopping potential it could bring across Merry Hill. The report also considered factors such as benchmark centre sales where M&S had already been upgraded, annual trips to Merry Hill should the refurbishment not take place, and potential customer loss to Bullring & Grand Central mall where a new M&S was due to open.

The data sources included in CACI’s report were:

• Transactional Spend Data: Derived from real-world debit card spend data from multiple sources, Transactional Spend Data is a fully consented view of spending patterns. It offers granularity into how different groups interact and how customers engage through an analysis of spend by product category.
• Acorn: CACI’s consumer segmentation model combines geography with a variety of demographics and lifestyle data sources, grouping the entire population into 6 Categories, 18 Groups and 62 Types. It supplies insights into the role that demographics plays in impacting the performance of a location and helps identify key users of a site.
• Location Dynamics: CACI’s machine learning tool predicts the retail, grocery and leisure catchments of over 6,000 destinations in the UK. It considers underlying population and spend, competitive landscapes and accessibility to each destination to model overlapping catchments. In this context, Location Dynamics was used to predict the centre’s performance, and overlap with Birmingham city centre, allowing for a comparison to actual sales to understand where and how the centre could grow turnover.
• Brand Dimensions: CACI’s benchmarking tool tracks the performance of 300 major brands over time. In this instance, it examined M&S spend performance nationally and at benchmarked locations.

What value would refurbishing Merry Hill’s M&S bring?

Having been at Merry Hill for three decades, investing in a refurbishment of M&S would solidify its continued commitment to the centre.

Increase in average spend, dwell time & turnover

CACI uncovered that centres with a refurbished M&S store have seen an increase in average spend per head in benchmark centres by 2.2%, which could help generate a substantial turnover at Merry Hill. With M&S accounting for 11% of centre floorspace at Merry Hill, improving its appearance could impact the ambience of the rest of Merry Hill and contribute to an uplift in dwell time, retail spend, and catering for the wider centre. Refurbishing Merry Hill’s M&S would also accelerate turnover at both the store and across the centre, as refurbishment is cited as a key factor for increasing sales.

Appealing to younger, more affluent demographic

Our research has shown that refurbished stores tend to attract younger, more affluent shoppers. While Merry Hill’s diverse shopper profile of Executive Wealth, Mature Money, and Steady Neighbourhoods Acorn groups is well aligned to key shoppers for M&S, key groups have all under performed versus catchment expectation. A refurbished M&S would appeal to these underperforming visitors.

A reported 82% of M&S shoppers also go on to spend in other stores at Merry Hill. Therefore, the new footfall that a refurbished M&S would attract would benefit other tenants in the centre.

Sales growth from new & existing shoppers

Within this project, we were able to quantify the number of new Merry Hill visitors that would be generated as a result of the refurbished M&S, with considering factors including their potential spend in M&S and their spill-over expenditure across the wider centre.

Graeme Jones, Executive Director at Sovereign Centros from CBRE: “M&S has been a big part of Merry Hill for several decades, so any decision about their future is one that needed to be made with real consideration of the potential impact on the destination. When we decided that we wanted them to introduce their latest shop fit, while consolidating from two units into one to create new opportunities, we started to create a proposal for M&S that would make the best possible case for a significant investment commitment. The data and insight from CACI was a crucial element of that business case, emphasising the rationale from a visitor, brand, and landlord perspective. It helped achieve a positive outcome for all parties, and the new M&S store is already beating commercial targets, and has had a big impact on Merry Hill and its visitor numbers.”

Ellie Brettell, Senior Property Consultant at CACI: “We’re increasingly being asked to support decisions like this one, where significant investment is involved and multiple parties need reassurance that the right choice is being made. Our objective, data-driven approach helps provide that clarity. Our contribution to this fantastic deal for Merry Hill was possible because of our expertise working for brands and owners of places – we understand the goals and potential impacts on both sides and can therefore create a report that rationalises a decision for all parties. Our evidence base made it clear that this deal would create positive outcomes for everyone involved, so naturally we’re proud that our work has helped to deliver such tangible success.”

How CACI can help

The insights provided through CACI’s report instilled both internal and external stakeholders with the necessary confidence to make significant investments in the refurbished M&S. To learn more about our products and data available from key partners to generate a single view of the UK property market, contact us today.