The commercial real estate industry has been aware on multiple occasions of what it needs to do to help reduce its carbon footprint and greenhouse emissions and be more eco-friendly overall. In recent years, the CRE industry is becoming more proactive in doing its part of the environment as more commercial buildings are greener and smarter, Ensavior Technologies’ Dinesh Semwal recently wrote for IT-focused CXOToday.
“As buildings, especially commercial real estate buildings, have been cited as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, employing efficiency measures to reduce the consumption of energy is an effective way to fight climate change,” Semwal wrote. “The augmentation of (Internet of Things) and technological advancements have allowed commercial building owners to embrace sustainability. Tech is paving the way forward to smarter, greener, more efficient buildings.”
Here are four tech solutions that have helped CRE buildings become more eco-friendly:
Automated-Driven Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made it easier for CRE owners to better optimize their buildings’ energy consumption. With AI and sensors deployed throughout a building, it’s possible to tell where people are within the property and heat or cool those areas accordingly. Less populated areas don’t require heat or air conditioning, and the sensor lets the HVAC system know it can scale back a bit, saving energy.
Smart Grid
Investing in a smart decision support system (SDSS) is a key way that tech can help CRE become greener, according to Semwal. The tech integrates smart grid analytics and cloud computing to make buildings more energy efficient. SDSS uses a building’s energy consumption data to detect patterns to determine how much energy a building will use going forward.
“This will not only aid in sustainability but also cost efficiency,” Semwal wrote. “(Building) owners, (tenants), etc. can decipher costs by using the system to optimize operations like lighting systems air conditioning, heating and ventilation. Green smart buildings thrive with the application of big data analytics and cloud computing technology to increase sustainable building energy efficiency. SDSS is the future.”
Smart sensors
Sensors have played an important part in helping CRE owners manage energy usage for some time, but they became even more valuable after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Semwal. The hybrid work model, which has any number of employees working remotely at a given time, has reduced the amount of energy that’s needed to make an office building functional. Smart sensors can detect office occupancy, which can dictate office temperature as well as when certain lights need to be on or not. Smart sensors can make managing energy more efficient.
Efficient light systems
With IoT, lights can be connected to motion detectors, which helps save energy. When people trigger the sensor, the lights come on. The moment there’s no one there to set off the sensor, the lights can shut off. Tech makes it so no one has to worry about “making sure the lights are out” when everyone leaves a conference room for example. Additionally, a lot of smart technology is accessible through mobile devices, so lighting and thermostat systems can be controlled remotely. “Sustainable consumption is the key to the future of architecture for both commercial and personal real estate,” Semwal said.
