You may have heard the term sustainability a thousand times when it comes to the environment and community around you. Although a broad discipline taught in school, that talks about our planet, the environment, businesses and technology, its main message is themed around reducing certain activities that are harmful to our environment.
In its simplest terms, sustainability is the act of trying to minimize the harm humans are doing to the world we live in by certain activities such as reducing our carbon emissions which have become one of the main conversations amongst many responsible decision-makers. Another aspect to help work towards a more sustainable future is to develop technologies of the future.
And one such idea that has taken the forefront of this conversation has been Smart Buildings. The question we answer in this article is – are smart buildings sustainable?
What is a smart building
To answer this question, we first look at what smart buildings are, or what the technology of one involves. Ever heard of the concept known as the ‘Internet of Things (IoT)? This is a collection of smart devices that include software, sensors and a connection to the internet, all integrated into one to work harmoniously.
When implemented into a building of any size or shape, this technology enables numerous capabilities such as monitoring various parts of the building, generating reports with insights into user behavior and patterns, and also has been used to optimize operations, as well as the environment as a whole. Amongst many businesses embracing the idea of developing such systems for various sectors, and although there are myriad solutions available, one successful example of such software can be found on this website at https://www.fsifm.com/en-au/
The question of sustainability
Now onto the crux of our topic. According to a whitepaper published by the LoRa Alliance on whether smart buildings are sustainable, it showed that the growing number of smart buildings over the past few years and the continuous demand will exceed $160 million in funding by 2026. People are no longer questioning the value of designing and building a green building i.e. a smart building because the environmental benefits far exceed that of any other traditional brick and mortar building.
The original idea behind a smart building, besides it being more secure, convenient and resilient is that it does much less harm to the environment which is why many of the Asia-Pacific countries are jumping on the bandwagon.
Let’s take the example of the internal cooling and heating systems. Creating better schedules for this when increasing or decreasing temperatures or being able to turn it off in rooms where there are no people, is a key metric for a smart building. There is no waste of the electricity which results in minimal utility bills and there is more control of everything from one hub.
Electricity and gas usage are also something you can control in a smart building. Controlling aspects of the property that are out of your hands, is one of the genius ideas behind this concept, and one that every sector should start embracing now before it’s too late.
Photographs by Ihor Saveliev / Ryan Ancill