Modern Building Services

24 MODERN BUILDING SERVICES OCTOBER 2022 FEATURE SMART BUILDINGS B uildings are known to be a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, consuming more than 30 percent of the world’s energy and contributing almost 40 percent of global carbon (CO 2 ) emissions. The construction sector and building owners have a significant challenge to reduce these numbers – in new builds but also in retrofitting – and the clock is ticking. Digitalisation and electrification along with better energy efficiency and incorporation of renewable sources are becoming the adopted solution for themajority of GHGs emitted by buildings, while connected technologies and building automation can also helpmanage grid resiliency and reliability. Advancing technology is a powerful enabler here – artificial intelligence is being used to optimise granular data collected by smart internet of things devices allowing for data-driven efficiency decisions with greater accuracy than ever before. As a result, better space management, and intelligent lighting, heating, and ventilation solutions are helping to improve employee comfort and productivity, while simultaneously saving energy and reducing running costs. The decarbonisation challenge While the new generation of smart, digital technologies can vastly improve the quality, safety, comfort and productivity of both commercial and residential buildings, significant hurdles remain. Decarbonizing infrastructure by integrating these innovations into new builds may be simple but retrofit projects can be daunting and this has to be made easier. Excessive consumption of electricity due to inefficient equipment such as legacy heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, drives and pumps 1 , for example, or poor asset or occupancy management, results in vast energy wastage. This presents a huge opportunity to install smart building energy management systems, coupled with highly efficient variable speed drives, purposely built, and configured for the application. The urgency for smart, digital technologies to revitalise and decarbonise aging buildings cannot be emphasised enough. According to the World Economic Forum, global building floor space is projected to double by 2060, yet only 3 percent of investment in new construction is green and efficient, while the renovation rate for existing buildings stands at less than a third of the rate required to meet the Paris climate goals 2 . Decarbonising buildings is a huge task, but digital technologies, coupled with collaboration across sectors and stakeholders, can help make the vision of smart, sustainable infrastructure a reality, says Fabio Mercurio of ABB Smart Buildings. Digitalisation and collaboration are key to decarbonising our buildings