Smart Buildings Help to Achieve COP26 Goals
According to a report from the European Commission, an estimated 75% of Europe's current building stock is considered energy inefficient. Governments around the world are setting ambitious targets to reduce the speed of climate change and ensure the average global temperature doesn't rise above 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial times. Buildings and their construction together account for 36% of global energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to the United Nations Environment Program.
In Europe, buildings consume more energy and emit more carbon dioxide than any other economic sector, and less than 1% of today's buildings are considered net-zero carbon, according to a WRI report on accelerating decarbonisation.
Therefore, it is clear that as an industry, we need to act now to decarbonise our existing buildings. 80% of buildings that will be in use in 2050 have already been built, so the potential within the retrofit process is huge.
Smart buildings utilise smart technology, systems and devices to create a more efficient, sustainable environment. The COP26 conference, which is currently underway in Glasgow (31/10/21 - 12/11/21), brings together world leaders with the aim of setting out new agreements and strategies to combat climate change.
Digital twins are being named as a potential aid towards preventing the world's current climate crisis. According to a recent report from Ernst & Young, digital twins are forecast to reduce carbon emissions by 50-100% within buildings, reduce operating costs by 35% and boost productivity by 20% (TwinFM).
Artificial intelligence (AI) has also been named as another technology that can help to combat climate change by making commercial buildings smarter and more efficient.
BrainBox AI is one of the companies that have been asked to showcase their technology at the conference. “Its flagship product, currently installed in over 100,000,000 sq. ft. of real estate across 17 countries, combines AI and cloud computing to create a fully autonomous commercial heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) solution. Through seamless communication with building management systems (BMS), the technology optimises HVAC systems in real-time, permitting the existing infrastructure to become predictive and self-adaptive, while significantly reducing energy consumption and emissions” (PR Newswire).
This is important because one of the largest contributors to a building’s energy consumption is its HVAC system. Typically, they represent 45% of commercial buildings’ energy usage, of which 30% is usually wasted. Current HVAC systems are using and demanding more energy than required to maintain occupant comfort due to their reactive designs and lack of data integration (Smart Building Show).
Many people are hoping that smart technology will be a big part of the agenda at the conference, and leaders will set out new legislation and standards that will unify the smart building industry, providing standardisation and a uniform approach that has been lacking for many years.
We recently interviewed Rob Mitchell, Project Sales Director within SSE’s Smart Building division, about how we begin to decarbonise our buildings.
In your view, how do we effectively meet the need for net zero carbon buildings?
“We have no choice here. The world is on fire; we have got to decarbonise buildings and our daily lives. We have to do this now. We can affect things quickly if we use things we have got already. Generally, at SSE, we have found that within moments of walking into an existing building, we can come up with a plan to reduce their impact on the environment. This is often a win-win because it means lower energy consumption too, which results in cost savings.
A lot needs to change; I am very passionate about this topic. The industry has some good standards, but there is more that could be done or more incentives/legislation that could be in place for non-domestic buildings.
If you take any reasonably sized building constructed over the last 10 years, they will have been constructed to some very exact standards, and generally, large buildings do have good automated central control systems, but the problem is, users and owners don't often realise what they have and as the building progresses out of the construction stage, through the warranty stage and becomes a 'used building' there's an approach to facility management that is low cost, low hassle and this, therefore, means that often buildings aren't optimised to their full potential and are invariably running inefficiently.
There is a real reticence to upgrade building management systems, which I find really odd. We build buildings to last, and we upgrade all of our other technology, e.g., our phones, laptops, TVs, or at least upgrade their software annually, but yet we expect BMS to last forever.
We're one of the primary sponsors at COP26. Is there going to be some top-down pressure? There is certainly budget being pushed by the public sector for decarbonisation, so it's definitely happening, but more needs to happen and quicker. We keep focusing far out, thinking about where we need to be in 10 years' time, but we just need to start making those first steps as an industry, connecting to buildings, analysing the data that's already there, and using the technology that is already installed”.
We also interviewed Dogu Taskiran, a software developer; a smart city thought leader and the CEO of Stambol Studios, based in Canada. He shared his thoughts on digital twins, how they work, the benefits and how they can make a building or even a city smart.
“Standardisation is essential. Creating open, interoperable protocols so that technologies don't just evolve by themselves; no company will achieve full smart buildings and cities by themselves. The industry needs standards to create a unified approach. Any device/system should then be able to integrate and provide or receive information”.
Rob agrees, “there will be a lot more collaboration across companies going forward. We're going to have to have systems that are optimised but are open so that the data can be shared with other things. We're already doing this with lighting, for instance. We are installing a quality lighting control solution, we're not trying to control it from the BMS, but the data is available to share. This creates a much more unified system that allows the building to react and understand what's going on. In due course, we can start sending information back and forth, so it can become a 2-way dialogue”.
Dogu reinforces this point, describing the potential that can be created if everything works together – “Merging BIM with a digital twin presents the opportunity to extend a building’s lifecycle from concept all the way to the end of life. Integration with IoT devices, machine learning and all the other assets enable users to visualise context. Storing and gathering data about every asset makes predictive analytics and operational excellence easier to achieve. It will allow adverse environmental effects to be anticipated; maintenance can be forecast and carried out much earlier to avoid breakdowns or inefficient running.
For example, if a boiler in a shopping mall is going to break down in the next couple of weeks, the Facility Manager will know because of the sensor data being analysed by AI and machine learning. They will know who maintained it last, the warranty, maintenance records etc. It will act as a single source of truth—a common database for everything that happens within the lifecycle of the building. In addition, this can all be monitored remotely by the Facility Manager”.
Environmentally positive, smart building strategies can make a huge difference. Digital Twins and AI help make buildings more sustainable, improving the operation and avoiding wastage. As Rob states, we've got to be brave; we need to find brave clients and show others what is possible.
The eyes and ears of the world are on the COP26 conference, and we are all poised and excited to see what the political powers announce for the future of our industry. It is an exciting time that will drive a lot of innovation and positive change.
