Can smart buildings contribute to net zero?

Transitioning to cleaner energy and reducing our carbon emissions is what we need to do to fight against climate change. As IoT technology gets smarter, GridDuck looks at how smart buildings might help us become more efficient and less wasteful. 

The UK Green Building Council, which is accelerating the recently launched UNFCCC-backed campaign called Race to Zero, provided their expertise and insight for this blog. 

According to the UK Green Building Council, the built environment contributes about 40% of the UK’s total carbon footprint and almost half of this comes from energy used in buildings and for infrastructure that has nothing to do with their functional operation. It’s a figure that has remained stable for years. Yet to meet the targets set out in the Paris Agreement, the energy intensity per square meter of buildings needs to reduce 30% by 2030. 

Time is ticking. What can be done? It’s clear to us at GridDuck that we need to become more energy efficient and reduce our demand. It’s the same conclusion the OECD reaches: “Improving energy efficiency in buildings can substantially reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions, while also stimulating job creation and making energy more affordable for households.”

Advances in technology and in the construction industry have enabled us to make both commercial and residential buildings that are more resource efficient by default. Some building technologies can even learn our routines, which has the effect of making us less wasteful. If we are going to make good on our pledge to reduce our carbon emissions and hit the ambitious UK government target of net zero carbon by 2050, we need to be looking at smart buildings as one part of a solution to a complex problem. 

Smart buildings: intelligent by design

A smart building uses technology to enable the efficient and economical use of resources. Smart buildings are designed to make our internal environment more comfortable. When we’re comfortable we tend to be more productive and happier. But that’s not their only benefit. There is an important knock-on effect on the environment too. Smart buildings help us reduce energy consumption, which means fewer carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere.    

At its most basic, the key to becoming more energy efficient is to have an accurate picture of where your waste is coming from. You could be inefficiently heating or cooling buildings. Or there might be machines that aren’t operating at their best. Perhaps lights and equipment aren’t being switched off. Did you know that just switching off appliances when they’re not in use can save you about 15-30% off your energy bill? 

The best way of knowing what is causing your energy waste is to have access to real-time data 24 hours a day. This data can drive your decision-making, allowing you to be proactive in saving energy and money. GridDuck uses the Internet of Things to wirelessly monitor hundreds of machines and appliances. These are then controlled by a dashboard that enables you to automate their interaction at any time of the day.  

In smart buildings, you have this kind of powerful information at your fingertips through a building management system. This computer-based system will control the day-to-day operations of your buildings and a large percentage of your energy consumption. It can intelligently respond to changes: for instance, when there are fewer occupants, the temperature suddenly plummets, or windows are left open.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 14% of commercial buildings are using a building management system. So why aren’t more of us adopting the approach enabled by new technology, one that gives us more control? 

We asked Lucy Rees, a sustainability advisor for the UK Green Building Council. She believes that smart building benefits are “not always very tangible or visible”, so it can often be hard to pinpoint the positive effect they are having on either building owners or their occupants. But there might be an even bigger reason, she adds, and that’s the absence of good case studies that showcase how they have worked for others.  

Showcasing solutions through case studies 

That’s one reason why the UKGBC has launched a new Solutions Library. Its aim is to tackle sustainability challenges within the property and construction sector using the experience of their nearly 600 members. Launched in June, the Library offers practical and commercially viable solutions to help address common sustainability challenges across the built environment sector.. The organisation is calling on those across the industry to submit solutions that can be profiled via the Library, some of which may focus on the advantages of smart buildings and the obstacles to wider take-up.  

“Cost is still a big thing,” Lucy Rees notes. “It’s the return on investment as well as the upfront costs that you need to consider. There is an assumption that it’s expensive to implement smart technology, and it’s important to acknowledge that the transition to a portfolio of smart buildings does have initial, capital costs.” Costs can be managed by adopting Internet of Things solutions (like GridDuck), which can be five to 10 times cheaper to buy and install and can be done in stages.  

While Lucy believes that, over time, smart buildings can be “cost positive”, there are still some hurdles that need to be overcome to make this case more convincing. This includes security concerns and the fear of the unknown. 

Decarbonising existing buildings

It’s also important to remember that many of our current buildings are the buildings we’ll be occupying in the future. The UKGBC estimates that 80% of buildings that will exist in 2050 have already been built, so a major priority is decarbonising our existing stock. Therefore, it’s not just about new solutions coming onto the market, it’s about solutions that will help modernise existing buildings too. GridDuck’s technology, for example, can be easily retrofitted into any commercial building. 

So, what should be our priority now as business leaders and owners? Lucy from the UKGBC says that we need to think about the bigger picture. The current climate challenges require commitment and collaboration. The sustainability advisor explains that it’s a critical year, with COP26 in Glasgow in November, and the Paris Agreement reaching its first five-year milestone. “We’re really calling on the whole built environment industry to make much stronger, more credible climate commitments,” Lucy says, “to take immediate action towards net zero which supports that.”   

The UKGBC, for example, has recently begun requiring its “Gold Leaf” members to commit to halving their emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, as part of their support for the Race to Zero campaign. Lucy believes that setting out concrete plans for the transition to net zero will help support wider government action.  

In terms of smart tech and smart buildings, she continues, it’s really about demonstrating the sustainability case. After cost, the environmental and social returns are rapidly rising up the agenda as priorities. “If these can be clearly demonstrated, then this tech will be picked up a lot faster,” the sustainability advisor concludes.

The next 10 years are crucial in our fight against climate change - and smart technology will play a key role in helping us reduce our carbon emissions. It’s not the only solution, but it’s part of a larger, holistic approach to tackling our current challenges. As buildings become ever more intelligent, they can learn how occupants use the space and proactively make changes to improve use, cut emissions and reduce energy consumption.

It’s GridDuck’s goal to be part of the solution and to help businesses adopt technology that will help them become more energy efficient, smarter and less wasteful. Find out more about how our IoT platform works here.

You can also find out more about UKGBC’s work on solutions and innovation here.