Green Buildings - Overview. Smart Buildings Make Intelligent Energy Decisions. In today’s building management environment, owners are stretching capital improvement projects and delaying upgrades. Yet, they still must maintain their aging assets and ensure customer satisfaction. They are looking for opportunities to consolidate space and improve space planning. Facilities operations costs represent one of the more significant operational cost elements for building owners and operators. At the same time, energy costs are rising. When it comes to building management, these problems are particularly acute. Buildings consume 40% of all electricity — more than any other type of physical asset or structure and they generate approximately 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Recent developments enable building owners and operators to collect real-time energy and building equipment information from multiple building management systems centrally, where it can be analyzed to identify energy and facilities operational efficiencies. Forget That Thermostat: A New Wristband Controls Your Surroundings. Think about how many times you’ve walked into your office, only to discover that it’s too cold (or too hot), too bright, or too humid. Now think about how much energy could be saved by making these settings more efficient. The WristQue, a wristband from researchers at MIT’s Media Lab, makes this kind of smarter building infrastructure possible--by allowing inhabitants to adjust settings with the press of a button.
The bracelet, which can be easily 3-D printed and customized by material and color, contains a main board with a microprocessor, sensors, and wireless communication capabilities. An expansion board allows for sensor customization. The device features three buttons: one to turn down heat (by turning on air-conditioning, say, or opening windows), one to turn it up, and one to activate any number of motion-detector activated devices in the area, including lights, coffee makers, and shades. And what if your cubicle-mate likes the office more toasty than you? Smart buildings don't have to be expensive | Guardian Sustainable Business. In 2008 the Smart 2020 report from The Climate Group and the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI) showed that there were a number of ways in which you can use ICT to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The report used the term 'smart buildings' to describe the technologies that you can apply to make the construction and running of buildings more energy efficient and estimated that using ICT could help reduce their emissions by 15% in 2020.
One of the elements of smart buildings is a building management system (BMS), which consists of a combination of software and hardware that helps run the building. BMS solutions often cover a range of building functions including lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation, among other things. The building management can even be tied in with security systems, since you can monitor them all from a central control unit. The low-carbon aspect comes from the ability to programme the BMS to perform specific functions under particular circumstances. Sustainability Student Explains How “Smart Buildings” Are Better – Education News. M.S. in Sustainability Management Student, Greg Falco The 36 credit Master of Science in Sustainability Management program, jointly offered by the Earth Institute and the School of Continuing Education, is designed to meet the growing demand for sustainability managers and train leaders to bridge the gap between the principle of sustainable development and its practice.
This program is ideal for practitioners and aspiring professionals eager to learn practical management techniques and sophisticated environmental measurement tools. This blog is about a current student who is addressing these issues both as a student in the program and a professional in the field. Sustainability Student Explains How “Smart Buildings” Are Better In a recently published paper, M.S. in Sustainability Management student, Greg Falco, explains the benefits of Smart Buildings, those that address energy efficiencies using innovative, data-driven techniques.
Smart Buildings - L'avenir des bâtiments intelligents. Total Building Solutions.