Last month, I participated in a panel discussion at Cleantech North on partnering for the establishment and growth of Cleantech applications and investments. Truth to be told: I’m no expert in Cleantech – but am certainly aware of its importance for addressing environmental sustainability while providing positive financial returns for investors and customers.

Cleantech refers to new technology and related business models that provide superior performance at lower cost; reduces or eliminates negative environmental impact; and improves the productive and responsible use of natural resources. Cleantech is mostly equated with renewable energy (wind power, solar power, biomass, hydropower, biofuels) but includes many other appliances that are now more energy efficient.

Being part of one of the largest technology companies in the world, I see the unequivocal relevance of IT in Cleantech and the significance of partnerships in the pursuit of economically sustainable innovation that addresses the many environmental challenges we face on Earth.

(1)   IT is Cleantech. Although technology is often accused of being a great contributor to energy consumption and inefficiency, it certainly can have much greater impact on the betterment of our environment (if you pick the right solutions from the right company). With the deployment of virtualization, we centralize the compute power and subsequent energy load—while delivering distributed and improved services and applications. This consolidation of IT functions has a tremendous impact on the overall environmental footprint, while providing greater flexibility and resiliency.

Furthermore, the use of business video (TelePresence) has a tremendous impact on businesses carbon footprint if make it avoid financial and environmental costly business and commuter travel. Ultra-high Definition and easy to use video communications will bring people together virtually without the hardship on the environment. At Cisco alone we have been able to reduce our carbon emissions by 40% thanks to the use of TelePresence and the elimination of business travel. Oh, and by the way, it also saved the company more than $1B in productivity gains and travel expense reduction.

Lastly, IT devices become more intelligent and energy efficient themselves while delivering more powerful capabilities; the IP Network has now the ability to improve energy performance of its connected IT edge devices (with EnergyWise).

(2)   Everything IT touches can be Green. The positive impact IT can have on the environment goes beyond its own components and devices. As we live in a world where everything becomes connected, we now can use the IP Network (the underlying nervous system of all IT) to monitor, measure, control, and optimize the energy consumption of everything we do, everything we use, and everything we touch. Consider the intelligent optimization of the Smart Grid (with renewable energy end-points) as we understand what and how much to deliver when and where, while harmonizing everything that connects to the grid.

Within buildings we see the converge of HVAC, lighting, and other building systems (that aren’t necessarily IT systems—yet) over the single IP Network which now provides the ability to improve the overall energy footprint. Our mobile devices can consume real-time data of our environmental impact and provide us with strategies to contribute to its reduction.

This latter argument requires partnering….and lots of it. It’s the governments, venture capital world and companies like ours that need to embrace the many innovators out there that are seeking to play a role in the improvement of our environment. If we can spend Billions on bail-outs and Trillions on wars, we certainly should be able to find the capital (financial and intellectual) to spearhead new technologies and business models that can make our world a better (and greener) place. In turn, we would all welcome financial returns and an eco-system that will help us grow greater business opportunities and create new industries and jobs. Cleantech is good for everyone: IT is good for Cleantech and Cleantech can’t do without IT.

We are walking into the Rêve, one of Tridel’s latest developments on King West in Toronto. This 14-storey residential building is one of the most advanced, enabled, and green communities in town.

As we walk in, we are greeted by the concierge that is not actually there. A high-definition Cisco TelePresence video solution beams the concierge in from some remote location. It’s as if she’s there and provides us directions as no in-person experience would have done any better. [Virtual Concierge]

On the 14^th floor, we enter the Eco-Suite. This sustainable home combines high quality design, environmental features, and the latest technologies in an effort to augment and improve the experience of condo living as we know it.

Where we once would expect light switches, we now find touch displays that control much more than light. For every room in the suite, we can control our lights, blinds, energy, TV and audio. It provides also the platform for accessing new web-based applications and value-added services. The same features and functionalities (and look and feel) are available on the TV screen, internet, and handheld devices.

Solar panels on the roof generate and augment power for the building, and many other environmental features such as green roofs, recycled building materials, and water-saving automatic faucets provide the ideal home for the environmentally conscious residents in the LEED-certified Rêve.

Surely, it is not about the technology or the panels on the roof, or even the TelePresence video solutions in the building.  All those are merely a means to an end: creating an environment (both physical and virtual) that becomes an extension and enabler for the rapidly changing expectations we have of life in an increasingly connected world.

We are looking for comfort, safety and security (both physical and virtual), health, flexibility and future-readiness, access to friends, family, and information, anytime and anywhere, and the ability to personalize everything around us as we see fit and when we see fit. We want to have all this while using as few resources as possible and leaving a smaller footprint in the world.

With the proliferation of connected devices (from tablets, smart phones, laptops, to the intelligence in our cars, and even our fridges and stoves) we can now surround ourselves ubiquitously with enabling technologies that provide the means to that end. Where typically this ability is limited to the devices that we carry; Tridel now made it integral part of the spaces that we live in.

Design, technology, the environment, innovation, and life… all becoming one.

...and a Greener World because of Networked Buildings.

Written for www.automatedbuildings.com

Introducing the Internet of Things—including Sustainability

It started early 90s when businesses took on the Internet to support their marketing and drive early-adopter productivity measures into their organizations (websites, emails, extranets). When in the late 90s the consumers moved onto the Internet the World Wide Web became a place to connect, interact, and transact. The consumerization of the Internet accelerated innovation, business transformation, and subsequent growth.

Just at the beginning of this last decade, approximately 400 million devices communicated over the Internet. The Network had proven to be the platform that connects people to people, people to machines, and machines to machines.

The turn of the decade marked the industrialization of the Internet. EVERYTHING is getting connected. It is estimated that, not many years from now, more than 1 trillion devices will be communicating over the Internet driving more than ½ a zettabyte of traffic over the Network. From cars, to refrigerators, to shopping carts and consumer goods, to more and more mobile devices, as well as smart meters, streetlights and light bulbs, toilets and soap dispensers, sensors, HVAC controllers [check out video from Controls & Equipment that shows the state of IP and POE controllers in the industry], and so forth—everything will be connected to the Internet of Things. There is no stopping this.

So, what does that mean to us [the building automation and real estate industry], and how does this make for greener buildings? Let’s look at the benefits that an inexhaustible Networked World can have on environmental sustainability through three lenses:

Sustainable Work

We build buildings to support the way we learn, live, work, and play. We work smarter, live smarter, learn smarter, and play smarter; why would our buildings not need to be smarter? Therefore, why don’t we first explore how a Networked World can help us optimize the experience we have in our buildings? Ultimately, a building is only truly intelligent if it helps advance user experience and productivity. Mobility and business video are among the two biggest drivers that empower people to be productive anytime and anywhere. The rapid growth of tablet devices is merely proof of the increasing desire for people to have access to productivity tools, anywhere they want. It is surely transforming everything we do.

Cisco has fully embraced business video [Telepresence] to keep people out of planes and improve their individual and group productivity. Since the launch of Telepresence in 2009, the company has installed more than 1,000 video end-points across its 400-building portfolio. As of February 13, 2011, 32% of all meetings at Cisco avoided travel, saving the company $782M and 422,092 metric tons of GHG emissions. Simultaneously, the company measured $293M in productivity cost savings. The Telepresence rooms have a 63% overall average room utilization—making them among the most utilized and productive environments within our real estate portfolio. The improved means of communication (in quality, quantity, and interactions) have resulted in the shortening of sales cycles by nearly 10%. You can arguably forget about everything else in this article—Business video is Sustainability At Work.

Sustainable Place

Mobility, business video, and numerous other ways in which we transform the way we live, learn, work, and play has a corresponding impact on the actual space that we need. The utilization and productivity of buildings can increase dramatically. At Cisco we are measuring a 33% improvement of utilization because of the changes in the way how we work—which means that we can “do more with less”… less desks, less cabling, less floor space, less heating and less cooling. The impact of technology on design and functional programming has to be considered by any space planner and corporate real estate department. There are big savings to be had if only technology and innovation are taken into account in the planning, design, and construction phases.

Sustainable Buildings

The Networked World allows us to access and address all people, systems, and devices that in their own right contribute to our carbon footprint. As we now –and only now— are able to holistically measure their impact on the environmental sustainability in real time, we find true ability to monitor and subsequently control environmental performance and outputs. THE CLOUD is giving us virtual means to consistently and continuously optimize the performance and productivity of our buildings.

It is not about building systems anymore; it is about building intelligence (or analytics). Building automation is becoming a means to an end. We can all (user, owner, operator, etc) benefit from the ability to do something more intelligent with all the valuable data that already resides in the many systems and devices within the built environment. Sustainable Buildings can extract this information and provide real-time feedback as to the necessary performance improvements that will drive down energy consumption and GHG emissions. This connectivity and interoperability between everything in our buildings can be achieved by integration and convergence onto one single IP Network—and the normalization of the many protocols in the building automation, security, and technology industries.

Convergence, integration, and inter-operability have proven to reduce energy consumption by 25%, and reduce operating cost by up to 10%.

Convergence

Those that occupy real estate should consider the convergence of “work”, “place”, and “buildings” and seek to optimize the total rather than a part. The environmental, economic, and social benefits of energy savings, no matter how cleverly it has been achieved, may simply be dwarfed by the benefits of changing how we work, or how we use our spaces. Embrace technology and innovation to help meet the sustainability objectives.

The capabilities and technologies; the companies that can help build, install, and maintain them; and the processes by which to use them to reduce a company’s—community’s—, or country’s carbon footprint are all there.

Nothing discussed here is “new” or bleeding edge. All it takes is a persistent owner and customer; willing and cooperative industry participants; and the appreciation that the status quo won’t get us the change we need.  Hmmm…did we just put our finger on the real problem the industry is facing?