Siemens’ Tool and How it Simplifies Building Decarbonisation
Buildings account for a significant portion of global carbon emissions, estimated to be responsible for nearly 40% of energy-related CO₂ emissions globally.
Decarbonising buildings not only helps businesses get closer to sustainability goals, but can also reduce bills through optimising energy efficiency.
Siemens Financial Services (SFS) has created a free, cloud based tool called the Decarbonisation Business Optimiser (DBO) to provide baseline carbon assessments and efficient pathways to net zero emissions.
The tool contains verified data sets and tools from the US Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The DBO is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using serverless architecture to minimise its own carbon footprint.
“Companies, specifically those in the supply chain, are increasingly asked to report their carbon footprint to their customers — yet many do not know where to begin,” says Anthony Casciano, President and CEO of Siemens Financial Services Inc., the US financing arm of Siemens Financial Services.
“The DBO addresses these barriers by taking action and puts companies of all sizes and at all stages in a better position to create long-term value, accelerating participation in the transition to net-zero emissions.”
Meet Siemens Financial Services
SFS is a division of Siemens, a German multinational technology conglomerate.
It aims to empower customers to unlock sustainable growth and the next era of innovation.
The company says it is one of the leading players in financing greenfield renewable projects and contributes significantly to decarbonisation.
In 2023, SFS had around 2,700 employees and €32.9bn (US$36.6bn) in total assets.
Veronika Bienert, CEO at SFS GmbH, says: “By working closely with Siemens businesses and our external partners across our key industries, our passionate team is able to accelerate innovation and competitiveness for our customers, providing tailored financing solutions that unlock sustainable growth.”
What makes the DBO different?
The DBO can generate cost effective decarbonisation scenarios for facilities using the address, facility size and type.
The estimated carbon footprint it calculates is based on data relevant to a facility’s geographic location.
If available, the tool can consider site-specific data such as the annual energy use or load profile to generate more accurate results.
“A lack of data sometimes can deter companies from initiating a sustainability strategy,” says Lee Evangelakos, Partner and ESG Pillar Leader at American Industrial Partners.
“As an initial tester, we found that the DBO tool is a great way to get started in estimating facility footprints.
“The tool enables industrial businesses to think through the building blocks of their emissions profiles and how they could begin to take action towards decarbonisation.”
The DBO can show users a combination of generation and storage technologies that make the most sense for a site such as thermal energy storage, battery storage and solar panels.
Roderick Jackson, Laboratory Program Manager for Building Technologies at NREL, says: "Trusted data sets coupled with credible modelling and analysis tools are vital in the complex decision-making process to achieve a clean energy future."
"NREL-developed tools are built to be leveraged in this way — including ComStock, REopt, and our Annual Technology Baseline framework. It’s great to see that in practice."
How the DBO was developed
The DBO was created by SFS in partnership with Siemens Technology, the company’s main R&D department.
It is built on AWS using serverless architecture to lower its workload carbon footprint.
This allows the DBO to only operate when needed instead of running constantly.
Amazon says AWS infrastructure is estimated to be up to four times more efficient than on-premises infrastructure. When workloads are optimised on AWS, the carbon footprint associated can be reduced by up to 99%.
The tool also uses public data made available through the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative to support estimations of the thermal properties of building materials.
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