In the world’s major cities, they’re looking to smart building systems—systems that combine the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence to drive up efficiency, reduce waste, and gain knowledge and insights.
For the uninitiated, here’s how it works: a building is fit out with physical sensors that can “talk” to each other and the internet. These pick up all sorts of information such as environmental data, occupancy and motion data, energy usage, security data, water and leak detection, and equipment performance. The level of detail we’re now able to get is astounding. Managers of smart buildings can find out the humidity and air quality of individual rooms, how many people are in a certain place, who is in the building and when they entered, and the wear and tear of critical infrastructure, such as lifts and escalators.
A rich picture of the building emerges—an actual picture, in fact. Some of the most advanced smart building systems create digital twins of properties. The manager or owner can see, in real time, what is happening in every room and every floor. With voice-activated control, that manager can either navigate the building or instruct the system to make changes through commands like “Reduce the brightness by 3%” or “Bring down the temperature by six degrees.”
I believe this is what progress looks like. One example that my company worked on is 22 Bishopsgate, a 62-floor property and the largest office building ever built in Britain. The implementation of a smart building system allows managers to understand what’s going on in a sprawling environment, making adjustments to shrink its climate footprint.
No person could ever have enough information about a building to really identify where energy could be saved, nor could they make those savings since it would, at the very least, involve hurrying from floor to floor, room to room, turning dials and pressing buttons. It would be impossible. However, with a smart building system, that happens all by itself. Building managers don’t need to make the adjustments manually as the system identifies, for example, that the lights are on in an empty room and can turn them off.
Sir David Brailsford, the director of the British cycling team during its most successful period in history, believed that if you improved every tiny thing by 1%, the overall effect would be massive. For smart buildings, those tiny improvements amount to much more than 1%. The overall effect on the carbon footprint of such a building can be massive, and the cumulative climate effect of fitting out every major building in a city like London or New York with a smart system would be extraordinary: 28% of all global energy-related emissions come from the operational energy use of the built world.
More building managers are taking action, embracing advances in tech to bring down emissions in the places we live and work. The result isn’t just a smaller carbon footprint, either; it can ultimately help bring down costs and create a more comfortable environment for occupiers, helping lead to better cities in the long run.
Beginning Your Smart Building System Journey
As you consider smart building systems for your own organization, where do you begin? To harness IoT’s potential in curbing emissions, prioritize platforms with real-time data that highlight energy usage and environmental impact. Such tools help pinpoint inefficiencies and reveal areas ripe for optimization, forming the backbone of a data-led strategy. Opt for systems that are both scalable and interoperable, able to keep up with evolving standards.
Cultivating an eco-aware culture of action within your team will also be crucial. Set up training on interpreting energy metrics, identifying wastage and understanding the environmental significance of even the smallest behavioral changes. Establishing a responsive feedback loop—where teams observe the tangible effects of their actions—can embed a culture of sustainable vigilance and improvement.
In a year marked by record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather, embracing IoT in our buildings is more than just a technological upgrade—it’s a shift for sustainability. As cities around the world embrace smarter, greener infrastructures, each incremental improvement brings us closer to a future where urban spaces are both functional and sustainable, 1% at a time.
