Insights from Răzvan Nica, CEO & Founder of CarbonTool, at the 2026 Net Zero Carbon Summit Romania

 

The ESG agenda has matured. What began as a compliance exercise of gathering data, producing reports and earning certifications is now being stress-tested against a harder question: does any of this translate into real competitive advantage?

 

At the 2026 Net Zero Carbon Summit Romania, Răzvan Nica, CEO and Founder of CarbonTool and BuildGreen, made the case that for the built environment, the answer is increasingly yes, but only if organisations move decisively from compliance-driven thinking to performance-driven action.

 

 

The efficiency imperative

 

The energy crisis and ongoing fossil fuel instability of the past several years have reframed the sustainability conversation in real estate. Efficiency is no longer a nice-to-have layered onto a green certification, it is a direct driver of asset value and occupier cost savings.

 

Răzvan Nica put it plainly. A green building that only delivers reputational and reporting benefits is leaving value on the table. The buildings that will define the next decade are those optimised for genuine operational performance.

 

This distinction between a building that looks sustainable on paper and one that performs sustainably in practice  sits at the heart of CarbonTool's approach to carbon data and building analytics. Measuring is the starting point; acting on that measurement is where the competitive edge is created.

 

 

Where the innovation is happening

 

Răzvan Nica was direct about the structural realities of the construction sector.  Innovation in core building materials and architecture moves slowly, and for good reason, as end-users demand proven, safe solutions. But the technology embedded within buildings is a different story entirely.

 

Heating, cooling and HVAC systems are evolving at pace, and they represent the largest share of a building's energy consumption. The move away from gas toward electrification, powered by renewables such as solar PV and wind,  is accelerating. And critically, the tools to manage that transition have become far more accessible.

 

AI-powered Building Management Systems and Energy Management Systems now allow dynamic, autonomous optimisation of energy use across a building's systems. These platforms adjust in real time to actual occupancy and environmental conditions, eliminating the inefficiencies that accumulate when buildings run on static settings. The human specialist is no longer a prerequisite for smart building operation.

 

 

The renovation cycle as a decarbonisation opportunity

 

For CarbonTool users working with portfolio-level carbon data, one of Răzvan's points carries particular strategic weight. Most buildings currently standing will undergo one or two major renovation cycles before mid-century. Each of those cycles is an opportunity not just to maintain a building, but to increase its performance as better technologies become available.

 

The structural shell may remain unchanged. But the systems that determine how much energy a building consumes and how intelligently it responds to demand, can be upgraded repeatedly. Carbon tracking at the asset level makes it possible to measure the impact of each intervention and to set credible, evidence-based decarbonisation trajectories.

 

That is precisely the shift the market now demands. Not declarations of intent, but demonstrated, data-backed progress. In the real estate sector, where energy consumption is a core financial variable, the organisations that build that capability now will have a measurable advantage over those still treating sustainability as a reporting obligation.

 

The 2026 Net Zero Carbon Summit made clear that the tools exist. The question is whether organisations will use them with the urgency the moment requires.