The 22nd edition of ENACON 2026, the largest event in Brazil's residential-property-management market, held on 17 and 18 June at the SECOVI-SP building, cemented its place as a landmark for discussing innovation and efficiency in building management. In the event's penultimate panel, Fernando Berteli, CEO and founder of NewSun Energy Group, brought a disruptive approach to analysing the impact of electricity, which currently accounts for around 21% of a residential community's fixed costs. For the executive, who has more than a decade of experience in the clean-energy sector, this tariff level conceals an extraordinary opportunity that goes far beyond a mere budgetary challenge, positioning shared housing developments at the forefront of the urban ecological transition.

Berteli opened his presentation with a thought-provoking premise, describing the role of the modern building manager as a "mini mayor" governing a "mini city". From this perspective, the property manager handles vital natural resources such as water, waste and electricity on a daily basis, while also mediating relationships between families, overseeing leisure facilities and coordinating a vast ecosystem of service providers. Because of this proximity and direct control, residential communities are in a far more agile and favourable position than local government itself to promote, test and lead high-impact sustainable transformations in society.

The sustainability tripod and the weight of shared responsibility

According to the vision presented by the CEO at ENACON 2026, true sustainability in residential settings should not be reduced to isolated actions, such as installing presence sensors or basic waste separation. The concept he advocates is built on the concurrent development of a Sustainability Tripod that harmoniously unites the economic, social and environmental spheres, demonstrating that it is entirely possible to generate real financial savings for the shared budget while actively preserving the environment and strengthening the social fabric of the resident community.

To convey the urgency of this shift in management practice, the speaker presented striking figures that reveal the ecological footprint of Brazil's residential-property sector. Every month, the country's residential communities consume around 3.32 gigawatt-hours of electricity and are responsible for annual emissions of 96 million tonnes of carbon from energy use alone. On top of that, the sector consumes 10 billion litres of water a day and generates 40,000 tonnes of solid waste daily. These alarming figures illustrate the scale of the social and environmental responsibility carried by building managers and management companies in their day-to-day operational decisions.

Predictability and real savings through subscription-based energy

As a practical solution to mitigate these impacts and ease the financial burden on shared areas, NewSun Energy Group set out how its subscription-based solar energy model works. The system operates simply and entirely free of red tape or structural upheaval: the company generates renewable electricity at its own power plants, strategically distributed across 14 Brazilian states, feeds this output into the local distribution grid, and credits the equivalent amount to the customer's account, reducing the amount owed to the traditional utility. In practice, if a residential community has a monthly bill of 10,000 reais, this arrangement zeroes out that consumption and issues a consolidated invoice of around 8,000 to 8,500 reais, guaranteeing an immediate saving of 15% to 20% without the building needing to invest in construction work, panel purchases or technical maintenance.

Beyond the immediate financial relief, the key advantage highlighted by Fernando Berteli is the long-term tariff predictability offered by the service. While historical energy inflation in Brazil runs at 1.5 times the IPCA (Brazil's official inflation index), NewSun's subscription contracts are adjusted strictly in line with that official inflation index, which progressively increases the percentage savings over the length of the contract. Locking price adjustments to the IPCA gives managers a unique governance tool, allowing them to forecast electricity costs precisely for the next five years, a level of cost control that is impossible to achieve with payroll, front-desk service or water-consumption contracts. This intelligent management approach is complemented by an exclusive digital platform where the community can track generation, consumption, utility bills and energy credit balances in real time.

Market expansion and new revenue streams with NewSun Partner

The strength of NewSun Energy Group's operations was underscored by the market figures presented at the SECOVI-SP event. With 38 megawatts of its own operations currently in place, more than 60 megawatts delivered, and a portfolio of over 1,500 corporate clients — 70% of which are residential communities — the company used ENACON 2026 to announce the NewSun Partner programme. This innovative partnership model is aimed at professional building managers and management companies who want to act as active advocates for the brand's sustainability ecosystem.

The programme provides for the payment of a recurring monthly rebate to the partner, for as long as the residential community they referred remains an active NewSun customer. This initiative opens up a new and attractive, legitimate revenue stream for property management companies and independent professionals in the sector, combining the pursuit of energy efficiency with the strengthening and enhancement of the industry's business ecosystem.

Closing his talk, Berteli reinforced the central thesis of his presentation by recalling a practical success story from São José do Rio Preto, where a residential community independently launched a pioneering selective-waste-collection programme that was later adopted and replicated by the city council itself as a municipal pilot project. This concrete example supports the argument that the residential community works as the perfect laboratory for cities, and that by making sustainable development tangible, palpable and measurable through real examples, we can create conscious advocates and transform society as a whole.