The Empire State Building in bustling Manhattan is now equipped with super sensitive microphones, tuning into bird calls and the slightest flutter of insects amid the cacophony of the concrete jungle.
The mics are attached to a nature-monitoring device collecting minute details on the cities' bugs, birds and bats, which feed into an artificial-intelligence platform that can alert the building owners of any concerning patterns. It's part of a broader real-estate industry trend to track properties' surroundings, amid pressure to anticipate how everything from pollutants to window cleaning -- and even strong lights -- could harm living creatures.
"As an insect flies it creates a vibration, a tiny little audio frequency," said Alex McLean, chief executive and co-founder of Alvéole, which oversees the nature-monitoring device and platform, called Aura. "We're monitoring in real time any real living thing coming in contact with that building," he said. "When a real estate owner makes a change, we can pick it up and see the fluctuation."
Birds emit lower frequencies with their calls, while the sensors also pick up higher frequencies from hovering insects. The sensors aren't positioned too high up in a skyscraper -- they're typically outfitted anywhere from the ground level to the 15th floor.
The technology was installed at the Empire State Building last year, and has now accrued enough data to spot patterns for Empire State Realty Trust. While New York City is known best for housing rats and cockroaches -- among other critters -- the city is filled with all kinds of creatures.
"Many species grow and thrive in one of the most dense urban environments in the world," said Dana Schneider, senior vice president and director of energy and sustainability at Empire State Realty Trust.
Aura pairs the bioacoustic information it tracks from the wildlife with satellite-based environmental data to provide broader context on the land and ecological conditions.
Aside from nature tracking, Alvéole, a Montreal-based company, also helps commercial buildings set up bee hives to help boost local biodiversity. The company got the idea for the tracking sensor after bees from its hives survived the fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and the business was approached by scientists wanting to better understand the movements of the insects.
Protecting bees and butterflies is also on the mind of some lawmakers. A bipartisan group of legislators on Capitol Hill introduced a bill in January to improve natural habitats for pollinators along highways, in part to strengthen agriculture.
Real-estate firms are turning to nature-monitoring in part because investors are paying more attention to biodiversity. There are also sustainability accreditations or initiatives which encourage reporting on biodiversity and nature, such as the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.
What's more, some companies renting office spaces or other sites are clamoring for nature data to help them put together reports on their environmental impact or risk. That's in part for requirements such as Europe's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which will require nature and biodiversity reporting.
The disclosure effort is especially important considering that the real-estate industry contributes to habitat loss, pollution and stress on local ecosystems.
A report from PwC said the real-estate sector accounts for nearly 30% of biodiversity loss around the world because of the land and resources it uses up. The industry hasn't done much overall to quell its harm on biodiversity, the report said, adding that there aren't many regulations pushing the industry to conserve habitats and species. But real-estate businesses can face losses if they don't pay attention to their impact on local wildlife, for example, if there's public concern about any environmental damage.
The real-estate sector has a broader environmental and climate problem amid increasingly extreme weather as everything from hurricanes to wildfires hit home prices and insurance availability. Pressure from the real-estate industry prompted Zillow to remove climate scores from a display on its website late last year.
Companies across industries have been investing more in technology to keep tabs on the minutiae of conditions at their buildings. Some are even putting up their own mini weather stations to help them track hyperlocal trends to protect themselves from flooding and heat waves.
While tracking tiny fluctuations around one building -- even a butterfly flapping its wings -- might seem insignificant, it feeds into a much bigger framework.
"One building is usually tied into a portfolio of hundreds and thousands of buildings," McLean said. "You take this one street corner in Manhattan, and when you multiply that by 2,000, that starts to become a huge footprint."