Empowering Facilities Managers: Intelligent Building Services For Sustainable And Resilient Energy Practices
By David Pownall, VP Services, and Kas Mohammed, VP Digital Energy, at Schneider Electric UK and Ireland.
It may come as a surprise that commercial real estate accounts for approximately 40% of global carbon emissions, and this is projected to triple by 2060, surpassing even transportation and agriculture. Emissions from commercial real estate primarily result from energy usage, and in particular energy wastage. Fortunately, this offers facilities managers scope for rapid improvement. Of the 40% of emissions that commercial real estate produces, as much as 90% can be tackled by retrofitting buildings with smart technologies that are already on the market. By installing new kit, tools, and processes, building and facilities managers can minimise downtime, reduce operational waste, and optimise their organisation’s energy usage.
The Road To Net‑Zero: Harnessing Intelligent Software To Drive Decarbonisation Efforts
As of 2023, rising utility bills, volatile energy supplies, and ageing infrastructures are sparking spiralling operational costs. So it’s no wonder that facilities managers are using intelligent software and services to design ‘buildings of the future’ - cutting down overheads while saving the planet.
The real game‑changer for this is the unprecedented visibility of a building’s energy usage and carbon footprint, made possible through digitisation. Smart electrical systems can measure the energy consumption of components such as power receptacles (plugs in walls), lighting systems, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Then, they can analyse and track a building’s energy efficiency performance against pre‑defined sustainability targets, highlighting areas for improvement and enabling transparent ESG stakeholder reporting.
Some of the greatest opportunities to boost sustainability lie within industrial facilities. Global production sectors are responsible for one‑fifth of carbon emissions, consuming over half (54%) of the world’s energy sources. Therefore, industry must automate its machinery and monitor its manufacturing processes to ensure energy usage is measured, managed, and minimised.
Implementing Sustainable Building Upgrades
Then, integrated energy and power management system (EPMS) software collects energy consumption, power event, and electrical asset performance data to help streamline and automate system management. Building operators also enjoy far clearer visibility of behavioural trends and anomalies, pre‑empting maintenance and minimising the risk of failures, downtime, and even fines.
The rise of smart buildings has transformed the management and efficiency of electrical systems. Greater connection and data intelligence enables optimised energy usage by highlighting when, where, and why waste is occurring.
Take leading US‑based glass manufacturer Guardian Glass, which faced monthly penalties due to its failing capacitor banks. Installing a range of smart building solutions (a YouTube video on this can be seen just below) enabled the company’s building managers to measure, in real time, the performance of the capacitors. And ever since, Guardian Glass has avoided hundreds of thousands of dollars in utility surcharges.
Maximising The Operational Efficiency Of Machinery
Digital management technologies can even help to reduce physical waste and pollution. By reviewing performance, and predicting optimal repair and refurbishment cycles, the software helps businesses to extend the productive capabilities and lifetimes of tools and machinery, while curbing failures and downtime. This condition‑based maintenance boosts both operational and energy efficiency via optimised material usage, slashing carbon footprints further.
A recent real‑world example is Nestlé Nescafé. The coffee production heavyweight installed smart technologies (a YouTube video on this can be seen just below) that use artificial intelligence and analytics to monitor equipment and predict system failures. By implementing power system monitoring and control across 80% of its global facilities, the company estimates it will cut maintenance costs by 5% and raise equipment performance by as much as 7%. Nestlé also expects this approach will reduce its 2023 manufacturing energy consumption by 5%—enabling the company to simultaneously accelerate its resilience, cost‑efficiency, and sustainability measures.
The integration of intelligent building services has emerged as a transformative force, enabling sustainable and resilient energy practices. It’s important that facilities managers embrace intelligent building services to not only improve operational efficiency but also position themselves as leaders in driving positive environmental change and meeting sustainability goals.
Click the article to enlarge it.
