From SqFt to kWh: Maximising Flex Space Efficiency with Transparent Energy Data

Having spent over a decade working in the property sector, "Square Footage" was always my default measuring stick. It was the metric that underpinned every conversation, every valuation, and every strategic decision. If you asked me to assess a building, my mind immediately went to its physical dimensions and how many desks you could fit in it.

Recently, I made the jump into the energy industry by joining Unify Energy. Coming from a property background, it felt like moving to a new country where I had to quickly learn an entirely new language. My old trusty friend, the square foot, was replaced by a new unit of measurement: the kilowatt-hour (kWh).

As I was finding my feet, it hit me: this linguistic shift points to a really deep-seated disconnect between the property and energy sectors. It’s exactly this communication barrier that makes it so incredibly tough for real estate folks to comfortably navigate the energy landscape. We're just speaking different languages!

In fact, I quickly found out that if I brought up my new favourite metric, the kWh, to my old property colleagues, I was met with that exact same glazed, blank look. The truth is, unless someone directly manages the energy bill or is intimately acquainted with their meters, utility metrics can easily fly right under the radar. That’s why landlords and operators need an energy partner who can step in and translate all that data in a way that actually adds value, making clear sense of one of the biggest cost lines you're factoring into every single budget.

Of course, there is a clear link between how big a building is and how much energy it consumes. But energy does not scale linearly. There are a massive number of variables that make setting a clean "average" almost impossible. How energy efficient are the physical bones of the building? Is there an HVAC system running around the clock? Most importantly, it comes down to what occupiers are actually doing inside. There is a world of difference between a standard hybrid office setup and a tech customer running a room full of hot server racks. Yet, because the industry has always used square footage as an anchor, flex operators and landlords are often forced to rely on guesswork and broad assumptions, usually splitting one overarching bill across the total floorplate or the NIA. When profit margins rely on precision, budgeting a major variable expense based purely on floor space is a massive risk. 

Heather Gray - Head of Sales, Unify Energy

Throughout my career—including four fantastic years immersed in the flex space—every budget I ever built was translated from this baseline square footage calculation. Whether I was measuring the total value of an asset or calculating a competitive desk rate for an incoming customer, SqFt was the anchor.

But here lies the problem: energy is consistently one of the top three operational expenses for any commercial building, yet it does not fit neatly into a price-per-square-foot model. Because of this friction, flex operators and landlords are forced to rely on a lot of guesswork and broad assumptions when forecasting utility overheads. Usually, splitting one overarching bill by the total floorplate, or the NLA/NIA. 

When profit margins rely on precision, budgeting a major variable expense based on pure floor space is a risk. Moving away from rigid square footage assumptions and embracing actual usage visibility is the key to protecting your bottom line and unlocking real efficiency.

Why Unify Energy is the Perfect Fit for the Flex Space

Bear in mind, I’ve been learning the energy sector with my Flex head on (hence writing this as my first blog post), but this experience lines up with Unify Energy’s origin story; We are built differently because we come from the property sector ourselves—we speak your language, and don’t assume you speak ours. We understand the daily operational headaches, the pressure on margins, and the unique dynamics of running a flexible workspace.

Here is exactly how we can help Flex operators move from costly assumptions to absolute accuracy:

True Accuracy with Fiscal Sub-Metering

Most commercial energy suppliers stop at the main fiscal meter. We don’t. We specialise in sub-metering beyond the main boundary unit, and are the only supplier to do so at present. This means you no longer have to rely on broad "averages" across your floor plates. You can see consumption data office by office, across amenities, or floor by floor - whatever you want to see, we can provide visibility.

If you are managing amenity spaces on behalf of a landlord, sub-metering allows you to capture exact energy consumption data. You can then confidently recharge these so the landlord can bake these accurate figures into service charges, ensuring you aren't accidentally absorbing those costs.

The Power of Sub-Metering in Large Suites

In the current market, large space enquiries are few and far between. When you secure a major customer, keeping them is vital to protecting your occupancy percentage—losing a big customer can be brutal, and backfilling that space is tough. Cue awkward conversations with landlords and investors.

Some corporate customers love the simplicity of an all-inclusive package and are happy to pay a “convenience premium”. However, if a customer has grown with you organically, an extra few desks at a time, and now finds themselves sitting in your largest suite, they might be eyeing the door to "graduate" into a traditional lease. Having sub-meters in that suite gives you a massive advantage in your retention strategy. Traditional leases always look cheaper on paper because headline rates only show the rent, service charges, business rates, and insurance. By showing your tenant their actual energy consumption data, you can help them calculate the real, hidden price difference of moving. It gives you a vital string to your bow to prove the ongoing value of staying with you.

Streamlining "Made and Managed" Solutions

If you offer "made and managed" spaces—where you provide wrap-around services alongside a more traditional lease structure—separate metering is a no-brainer. To help free up your cash flow, we can white-label the billing and invoice your customer directly. At the same time, we give your team full visibility over consumption and charges, keeping you firmly in control without the administrative burden. This also means a larger customer’s energy consumption isn’t leaking into your overall desk rate in your Flex provision.

Granular Insights with Suite-by-Suite Sub-Metering

Placing a sub-meter in every office completely changes the game for your pricing strategy. If you notice a specific customer has exceptionally high energy consumption, you can build those actual costs into their specific annual renewal. This stops you from having to awkwardly uplift your overall desk rate across the entire building, ensuring you don’t price yourself out of highly competitive, price-driven local markets.

Fairness and Transparency for Your Members

Your customers—especially smaller businesses and startups—increasingly want to understand their own footprint. Many are actively pursuing sustainability accreditations like B Corp status. Using a building-wide average simply isn't fair to a low-energy user who is inadvertently subsidising a neighbour running high-powered equipment all day. Accurate data gives your members the transparency they deserve.

A Property-First Approach to Credit and Billing

Getting great energy rates can be incredibly frustrating if you operate across multiple OpCos or SPVs, especially if a newer asset is temporarily dragging down the creditworthiness of your group. 

Because we come from property, we get it.

We look past the rigid corporate boxes to ensure you still get excellent rates—money saved that you can plough straight back into the asset or the customer experience.

Furthermore, we bend our billing to suit your accounts team. If you need billing grouped by SPV but split into individual accounts per building, we can do exactly that. We give your finance team the structure they need, while ensuring your operations team maintains full visibility. Juggling multiple energy contracts with different start and end dates because your sites opened at different times? We can work with you to co-terminate and consolidate those dates, making your contract management completely hassle-free.

We Flex for Flex

Your business model is built on flexibility, so your energy partnership should be too.

1. We offer the stability of fixed rates

2. The agility of variable tariffs, or bespoke flexible solutions tailored to your specific usage patterns and budget

3. Our pricing is completely transparent, with zero hidden costs or inflated out-of-contract rates

4. As your operations evolve, we can adapt your tariff to ensure it never stops delivering value, giving you total choice and confidence

Supercharging Your ESG Strategy

Rightfully, there is immense pressure on the property sector to decarbonise and improve asset efficiency. Your ESG Manager will be absolutely thrilled with Unify. We provide the accurate, granular, and meaningful data required to support your corporate reporting, sustainability strategies, and official accreditation documents. And if you want to push the envelope even further, we can work closely with you to explore truly green, sustainable supply routes.

Oh, and no call centres…

Got an issue? Pick up the phone and resolve it in 5 minutes with your dedicated account manager. No bad hold music for hours or repeating the overview of your complex structure again and again to different call handlers. 

Let’s Talk

If you are ready to stop guessing your utility costs and start managing your spaces with absolute precision, the Unify Energy team is here to help.

Whether your current energy contract is due for renewal in the next few months and you want a fresh, expert pair of eyes to review it, or you are getting ready to expand into a brand-new site and want us to support your metering strategy from day one, let's start a conversation.

Get in touch with us today to find out how we can flex for your business and unlock the true value of your space.