Green And Cost Effective: What is the Future Of Buildings?

By Rahul Chillar, Brand Contributor, Siemens Smart Infrastructure
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The Future of Buildings
Buildings play a crucial role in meeting sustainability targets while being cost effective & open digital platforms are key to unlocking their potential

Building owners and operators are currently facing several challenges, positively managing the health of its occupants, something which has been further heightened in a post-pandemic world, managing cyber security risks and delivering against critical sustainability targets, all the while ensuring that the building operates in a more cost-effective manner.

Regulations such as the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) or the US Inflation Reduction Act are adding pressure on building owners to transform them into sustainable assets. 

Although energy and operational efficiency are essential for building owners, investors and operators, findings from the Siemens Infrastructure Transition Monitor 2023 suggest only 37 percent rate their organisations as mature or advanced when it comes to improving energy consumption of facilities and buildings.

Despite such results, the good news is that the technology needed to drive the transformation of buildings on a global scale already exists. And it doesn’t necessitate extensive new construction. It just needs faster implementation.

Digital building platforms: tackling today’s issues and shaping a more sustainable tomorrow

What is needed to overcome these hurdles quickly, future-proofing buildings for the demands of today and tomorrow? The answer is open digital building platforms that are modular, fully cloud-based, with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled applications, strong connectivity, and built-in cybersecurity. 

This structure enables a seamless experience across all applications such as energy management, security and buildings operations. The advantages are obvious:

  1. Data and cybersecurity

Due to their open architecture and having one single data pool as the single source of truth, they not only bring an end to data silos, but they also reduce complexity. 

The result? Building managers have access to building data from multiple sources, disciplines or systems on a single cloud-based platform without compromising cybersecurity. 

Building owners and operators are also able to seamlessly integrate existing and new real estate, legacy applications – such as building management software, fire safety or lighting systems – and ecosystems. Thus, buildings operate more efficiently, which also pays off in terms of costs.

  1. Outperforming with AI

It's no wonder that AI tools are indispensable in the building sector as well. In combination with AI, digital building platforms are able to optimise operations and sustainability: Machine Learning (ML) can improve the operation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems based on environmental and building data to detect problems before they occur. 

AI algorithms can also use historical data to forecast and therefore support the reduction of expected energy consumption patterns, costs or CO2 emissions.

  1. Transparency and empowerment

Digital building platforms enable operators and managers to remotely monitor and manage several buildings with different lifespans and systems at the same time. This provides not only full transparency, but also enables fast reactions in case of incidents. No matter the function, whether sustainability, facility management, security, real-estate, IT or application engineers, people will have an overview to help them meet specific business goals.

An example: A sustainability manager aims to improve the energy performance of a building based on real-time data to meet decarbonization targets. Applications to ingest utility bill data provide an overview of energy consumption, costs and emission levels of their products, which can then be used as a basis for creating a decarbonisation roadmap. With the help of AI-based analytics the sustainability manager can then run simulations to oversee costs and the anticipated return on investment (ROI), but also prevent budget overruns.

Digital Transformation in the Building Sector

From smart to autonomous and beyond

Digital transformation in the buildings sector is clearly pivotal but doesn’t mark the end. In the private sector, open digital platforms have long since reached the masses – for example with smartphones and their compatibility with external applications. 

The same applies for buildings, which need to become smarter and more autonomous. Scalable digital building platforms – such as Building X as part of our open digital business platform Siemens Xcelerator – need to find their way to the mass global buildings sector. 

This is the only way building managers and operators can ensure their assets to be future proof in the long-term. It is certain: Interoperable, flexible and open digital building platforms will shape the future, while paying off in terms of sustainability and cost efficiency.

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