Craig Roussac, CEO of Buildings Alive and Anthony Ursino, Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel at Pro-invest Group.
Strategic partnership to strengthen environmental performance, operational insights and portfolio-wide reporting across 13 hotels
Pro-invest Group has announced a strategic partnership with Buildings Alive to implement a portfolio-wide environmental performance optimisation, monitoring and NABERS improvement platform across its fund hotel portfolio.
The rollout follows a six-month trial at Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport, which commenced in 2025 and demonstrated the value of enhanced environmental performance monitoring and operational insights. Following the success of the trial, Pro-invest Group has committed to expanding the platform across all 13 operational hotels within its fund portfolio, with onboarding scheduled for completion by October 2026. The partnership also establishes a framework to support future expansion across Pro-invest Group’s growing urban accommodation pipeline.
Under the agreement, Buildings Alive will provide portfolio-wide environmental performance monitoring, data analytics, reporting, optimisation support and NABERS rating services. The partnership is designed to support Pro-invest Group’s ongoing commitment to responsible asset management through its ESG strategy and ethos, One Earth, Countless Experiences. Buildings Alive’s platform provides visibility from portfolio level through to individual assets, enabling proactive management of energy, water and environmental performance data while assisting hotel teams to identify opportunities for continual improvement.
As part of the partnership, Pro-invest Group and Buildings Alive have established portfolio performance objectives, including a baseline of 4.5-star NABERS Energy and Water ratings across participating assets and a target of 5-star NABERS Energy and Water ratings where operationally feasible. These objectives align with the Group’s broader investment mandates, recognising the growing importance of operational efficiency, environmental performance and sustainability outcomes within institutional real estate portfolios.
The rollout will be delivered in collaboration with Connect Hospitality, the operator of Pro-invest Group’s fund hotels, ensuring operational teams are equipped with the data, reporting and technical support needed to drive continuous performance improvement at asset level.
Anthony Ursino, Chief Operating Officer & General Counsel, Pro-invest Group, said the partnership reflects the Group’s long-standing focus on integrating sustainability into asset performance and hotel operations.
“Over the past decade, we’ve worked to embed sustainability into the way we develop, operate and manage our assets. Today, NABERS ratings, utility performance and ESG reporting are established parts of how we assess asset performance across the portfolio.”
“As the assets under our management continues to grow, having access to quality data and meaningful insights becomes even more important. The Buildings Alive partnership gives our teams greater visibility into how our assets are performing, helping us identify opportunities, strengthen operational decision-making and maintain a consistent approach across the portfolio.”
“We’ve agreed to clear performance objectives, including maintaining a minimum 4.5-star NABERS Energy and Water baseline across participating assets and striving for 5-star ratings where operationally feasible. For us, this is simply the next step in a long-term commitment to responsible asset management, ensuring environmental performance is managed with the same discipline, accountability and focus on outcomes as every other aspect of the business.”
Craig Roussac, Chief Executive Officer, Buildings Alive, said the partnership demonstrates how the hospitality sector is increasingly embracing data-led environmental performance and operational excellence.
“Pro-invest Group has shown a genuine commitment to understanding how building performance influences both environmental outcomes and investment performance.”
“What began as a single-hotel engagement has grown into a portfolio-wide partnership because Pro-invest Group recognised the value of combining operational intelligence with practical engineering expertise.”
“Hotels are complex, highly dynamic assets. Our role is to help operators and owners identify opportunities, improve environmental performance, strengthen NABERS outcomes and make better-informed decisions based on real-time data. We are excited to partner with Pro-invest Group as they continue to raise the bar for the hospitality sector.”
Troy Cuthbertson, Group General Manager – Operations, Connect Hospitality, said “Connect Hospitality elevates hotel performance on behalf of owners, and access to better operational intelligence is a key part of that. The Buildings Alive partnership strengthens our ability to understand how assets are performing, identify opportunities for improvement and deliver more efficient, sustainable operations. It’s a practical step that supports stronger long-term outcomes for both the portfolio and individual properties.”
The Buildings Alive platform will provide ongoing monitoring and analysis of electricity, gas, water and environmental performance data, supported by technical experts who work alongside operational, ESG and asset management teams to identify opportunities for improvement and support NABERS performance initiatives. By improving visibility across the portfolio, the platform enables owners, asset managers and operators to make informed decisions, prioritise improvement opportunities and drive stronger performance outcomes over time.
The initial rollout covers 13 operational hotels across Australia and New Zealand, including Kimpton Margot Sydney, Hotel Indigo Sydney Potts Point, Holiday Inn Express Sydney Airport, Holiday Inn Express Melbourne Southbank, voco Auckland City Centre and voco Queenstown, among others. The assets will be onboarded through a phased implementation program concluding in early Q4 2026.
As Pro-invest Group continues to expand its hospitality and urban accommodation platform, the partnership positions the Group to leverage enhanced environmental performance insights, operational efficiencies and portfolio-wide reporting consistency across future assets.
About Pro-invest Group
Pro-invest Group is a vertically integrated real estate investment platform specialising in private equity real estate, fund and asset management across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Established in 2010, the Group manages approximately A$3 billion in assets under management and manages the full asset lifecycle, with a portfolio track record spanning over 30 hotels (around 6,000 rooms) alongside commercial and mixed?use assets. Building on its hospitality heritage and operational expertise, Pro?invest Group is evolving into Urban Accommodation, Flex?Living, Build?to?Rent and commercial real estate. The Group has a commitment to ESG backed by its One Earth, Countless Experiences ethos.
Further information can be found here www.proinvestgroup.com
About Buildings Alive
Buildings Alive helps leading owners and operators of commercial and institutional real estate, achieve positive cashflow from implementing state-of-the-art decarbonisation and environmental efficiency programs. The group specialises in large and complex buildings including office buildings, shopping malls, hotels, academic buildings, hospitals and laboratories throughout Australasia, North America, Asia and Europe. Buildings Alive technology blends data science, building science and behaviour science to optimise maintenance expenditure, minimise operating costs, reduce environmental impacts and enhance occupant comfort and wellbeing without resorting to conventional capital-intensive solutions. Increasingly, Buildings Alive’s technology is being used by businesses targeting 24/7 Carbon Free Energy (CFE) operations. For organisations who have achieved, or are edging towards, ‘net zero’, Buildings Alive helps them answer the question: ‘what’s next?’
Further information can be found here www.buildingsalive.com
About Connect Hospitality
Global brand, local powerhouse. For owners that demand a global brand, paired with local expertise, flexible management and service solutions.
Connect Hospitality is a dedicated third-party hotel management platform providing hotel owners with a flexible and commercially focused alternative to traditional management structures. The business combines operational excellence with sophisticated commercial capabilities to maximise hotel performance and long-term asset value.
For more information head to connecthospitality.com
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