Contributed by Ron Gordon, Business Development Manager, Cisco Canada
rongordo@cisco.com

Effective January 1^st, 2012, the Ontario Building Code (OBC) incorporates the ASHRAE 90.1 – 2010 Standards which include a stated goal of achieving a 30% energy savings when compared to the ASHRAE 90.1-2004 Standard.  By all accounts, this is an aggressive target.

While I am the furthest thing from an ASHRAE expert, I cannot help but notice the increased reliance on Controls and Sensors in order to optimize HVAC and Lighting energy usage to help achieve the 30% savings.  The utilization of Occupancy Sensors, Static Pressure Sensors, CO2 Sensors, Temperature Sensors and Daylight Harvesting Sensors provides key control data to ensure the Building Automation Systems (BAS) [for the purpose of this blog we refer to lighting, metering, and HVAC] operate at their peak efficiencies and consume less energy. This also translates into the need for the BAS systems to be more integrated than ever before.

What if all the information and data acquired from a plethora of sensors and systems was served up for all the BAS systems to share, access and utilize.  Do away with duplication and traditionally closed disparate networks and implement a single, secure, converged network for all to use.  The ideal situation would be to incorporate all sensors onto the same network and provide open access to the information they provide.  To do this, the BAS systems would have to move away from their proprietary closed architectures to something more open and share common data and controls between them.

Take this to the next logical step and provide a common dashboard which gives real-time performance metrics and the ability to control the various BAS systems in unison.  Turn down lighting and HVAC systems in unoccupied areas and provide environmental conditioning on an as required basis similar to the way new inventory systems utilize “just in time” delivery controls.  This is a Smart + Connected Real Estate.

These steps will not only help meet the ASHRAE 90.1 – 2010 Standards, but also lay a solid foundation to meet new ASHRAE standards as they are designed and implemented.  After all, standards are constantly being updated with new targets and goals and any architecture which future proofs a building, enabling it to adopt new technologies to optimize performance is positive.

In summary and simple terms: future-enable your buildings, and be ready for ASHRAE 90.1 and new building codes with convergence of building systems on one IP network.

Today we received three powerful presentations of cloud-based application providers in the Smart + Connected space. One is an up-and-coming star in automated fault detection and energy management. Another is leading in dashboards and process optimization through data visualization. The last one showed some impressive analytics for carbon measurement and reporting. All three are nothing but impressive and I look forward doing business with all of them – but they’re also not the first nor alone. I truthfully don’t remember how many cloud-based application providers we have met and whose solutions we have reviewed. One is better than the other, and we may have to see eventually how this market will shake itself down.

Naturally, there is nothing wrong with all this. It’s the new way. This is where the future lies for all businesses; and so also for the construction and real estate industry (who by and large - with few exceptions - does not quite understand the impact this will have on business as we know it).

Flashback. 18 years ago. In my first conversation with my Harvard professor, I was introduced to the concept of “Islands of Automation”. Interesting concept: there is all this wealth of facility and operational data sitting in many disparate systems and software that seem not able to communicate with one another in an effort to optimize building performance and the eventual experience in the environment. The result is: multiple screens, multiple interfaces, multiple control…lots of cost and inefficiency. There must and shall be ways with which we can better utilize all this silo-ed information and create higher performance buildings.

Now, back to today. Yes. We did it. Indeed, a standardized foundational infrastructure is deployed to tap into all these disparate systems and free up the wealth of building data that finds itself locked in proprietary silos: introducing the Network as the Platform for Building Transformation (shameless plug). IP has become the standard to moving bits and bites around to power up these valuable and up and coming cloud-based applications.

However….if we (simplistically) break their services down in three layers; we recognize that this new industry is fighting over at least two layers that they all have in common. (1) access to the data and the ownership of the data warehouse. All deploy many (sometimes proprietary or customized) ways to extract the data from the building. (2) the visualization of data through sexy and easy-to-use dashboards. One is prettier than the other. As a customer, do I now still have many different websites to go to in order to access my data (energy, carbon, maintenance, fault detection, etc…..mind you; there is probably not ONE perfect app out there; we’re going for “best of breed”).

(3) the actual meat and potatoes—the analytics. It is this 3^rd (architecturally considered the middle layer) that really sets the vendors apart. Where the real value is added.

If a building owner can’t “standardize” on data collection, aggregation, and warehousing (call it the back-end);  as well as the front end access (dashboards) of the information; and naturally one Network that connects the two together….aren’t we still building Islands of Automation, yet now they’re in the cloud? Different tentacles reach in the building to grab what they need, yet ignoring the possible value of the aggregate? Various data warehouses on different databases around the world capturing bits and pieces of building performance data that is required for the specific service or function? We still may need bridges between the islands of automation. They now have become virtual. Who is going to capitalize on the new bridge construction…and tolls?

According to unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency [IEA], greenhouse gas emissions have increased by a record amount last year to the highest carbon output in history. Last year, a record 30.6 Giga-tones of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere, mainly from burning fossil fuel, a rise of 1.6 Gt on 2009 [IEA estimates]. Emissions from energy fell slightly between 2008 and 2009, from 29.3 Gt to 29Gt due to the worst global economic recession in 80 years. The IEA has calculated that if the world is to escape from most damaging effects, annual energy-related emissions should be no more than 32 Gt by 2020. If this year’s emissions rise by as much as 2010’s, that limit will be exceeded nine years ahead of schedule [the Guardian, June 9].

Take into the consideration the status of the supply (generation) side of energy: 80% of power stations like to be in use in 2020 are either already built or under construction. These account for 11.2 Gt emissions (out of 13.7 Gt in the electricity sector) that are “locked in”; and thus savings will have to be found elsewhere. Also, the world is changing its mind on nuclear power after the Tsunami damage at the Fukushima power plant in Japan. As a result, Germany already halted its reactor program, and other countries are reconsidering nuclear power. Nuclear is one of the major technologies for generating electricity without carbon dioxide.

These are glooming facts; especially if you take into consideration the mass urbanization of the rapidly growing world population. More than 70% of all energy today is consumed in cities; and it is expected that in the years to come more than 500 M will migrate to cities to seek economic and social prosperity. The American Institute of Architects [AIA] has predicted that of all the functional real estate that we require in 2030 to accommodate such dramatic shifts , more than 70% does not exist today. The anticipated build-out that we require to support the growing and urbanized global population will even further jeopardize chances to salvage our environmental predicament.

Now, I happen to work for a company that has a strong vision and available capabilities to address or impact many of the problems in front of us: from generation to distribution with smart grids, to consumption and supply with smart buildings. And we’re certainly not alone: our partners show no less impressive innovation and capability to contribute towards the solution. What’s truly missing is the coming together of industry, institutions, and government, and the alignment of investment and focus to get stuff done—leadership, ownership, policy, direction. It’s time for the “Urban Electronic Nervous System” as Martijn Moerbeek calls it, to assist in monitoring, managing, controlling, optimizing, and minimizing the flow of everything: people, electrons, water, traffic, etc. The will and innovation is there. Technology is the foundation. Let’s put it to work.

Last week I spoke to the Alumni of George Brown College’s “Centre for Construction and Engineering Technologies”. On my way there I realized that it was more than 17 years ago that I myself graduated from a like-minded institution in the Netherlands. 17 years ago ! And oh my; has the world changed since then. When I left college, it was the year that they handed out email addresses to the students (I missed out). It was all pretty basic stuff, and the Internet hadn’t really developed yet into something useful. Nobody in my year had a cell-phone, and laptops were a novelty. My PC had a 3.5” floppy disk (a what?). My first laptop came two years later and was called a “mobile desktop”. There was no Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Receiving my emails on a phone was unthinkable. “Cloud” meant only one thing. The cool thing (for living in a dorm back then) was to have our own fax machine.

Now, 17 years later…where to start. I don’t listen to my CD’s anymore; music now comes from my phone. We watch 50” LCD TV and 3D is on sale. The fax is gone, and my car parks itself.

The internet has exploded. Since my graduation, network speeds have increased 18 million times. Internet traffic to one of the hottest video sites (either Netflix or YouTube) in one year today completely dwarfs all internet traffic combined that was traveling the networks when I graduated. In today’s heavily enabled and booming information age, humans have created more data in 2009 than all previous years combined. Video has taken over as the dominant medium on the internet: Netflix consumes nearly half of US internet traffic today, and high-definition video conferencing is available in the home. Every 60 seconds, there is 48 hours worth of video loaded onto YouTube; and 2 billion videos are watched each day on this popular video site. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites have taken the world by storm. Not only their valuation is astonishing ($100B, really?); their member base is equally impressive (Facebook leading the charge with more than ½ billion active users). Tablet devices didn’t even exist 2 years ago (let alone 17 years ago); and already there are more tablets sold than PCs this year. And on and on and on. And when I write all this; the facts are already obsolete. It is expected that in 2015 there will be nearly one mobile-connected device for every person on earth; and less than 5 years after that we anticipate 1,000,000,000,000 (yes; Trillion) connection into the Internet.

Where does it end? It doesn’t !

This begs the question: are we building the right infrastructure, buildings, communities, countries or even environments (in the most abstract sense of the word) for the generations that grow up in this new world? Are we making enough progress in the evolution of our physical infrastructure also, to accommodate the rapidly changing expectations in this rapidly changing world? My opinion: NO. We simply can’t keep on building buildings like our fathers and their fathers did. Times have changed—and it’s time for the real estate and development community to get on board. And there is nothing wrong with that…many other industries before us have embraced the technologies to create new opportunities, new businesses, and new wealth. Let’s use the innovation and transformation around us to rethink the environments that support and enable us; and to rethink how we jointly get to create those environments. In times of constant and accelerated change, we either lead; follow; or get out of the way. This train ain’t stopping; and we’re driving it (and your children to). All aboard.