A key challenge for business is how to reduce energy waste in older commercial buildings. Consider almost any commercial building, whether hospital, airport, shopping mall, hotel, or office block and it will consume lots of energy. Moreover, much of this energy consumption is unnecessary. Estimates suggest that waste accounts for 30% of the energy used in U.S. commercial buildings.
Energy consumption is a global problem, and it affects everyone. It increases expenses for businesses, tenants, and customers, and that alone makes it worth addressing. Factor in the growing threat of climate change, and the problem becomes an urgent predicament. Business as usual must change to business for the future. So, what needs to happen?
Schneider Electric believes digital transformation is the key to revolutionising the way we manage energy consumption in buildings. Modernising buildings can take many forms. It can include anything from installing energy-saving lighting to upgrading or implementing a fully integrated building management system (BMS).
For example, new generation BMS are more powerful with greater capabilities unheard of ten years ago. An obsolete BMS can cost you time and money and can limit functionality for making improvements. For example, from cyberattacks that disrupt daily operations to excessive downtime, increasing maintenance costs, and missing sustainability targets.
A BMS provides real-time controls and reporting, and advanced tools like analytics to improve management over time. Whatever the project, modernisation can reduce cost and waste, improve the environment, and prepare for the future. Basically, the benefits are clear, and the existing building stock is huge.
Partnering to reduce energy waste
Whether a building is old or new, modernisation is a significant challenge, and few single organisations can go it alone. Every building project is a collaboration of many professionals and disciplines: architects, engineers, technology providers, installers, integrators, facility management companies, and the building owners themselves. Partnerships are the solution to reducing energy waste in commercial premises.
Partnerships create more value for the end customer by delivering products with the combined abilities of the business partner organisations. An example of this is the EcoXpert Partner Program. Rather than doing everything alone, or trying to outperform everyone else, partnership networks help all parties work as a team to use all their expertise together. EcoXpert partners are the enablers of Schneider Electric’s Buildings of the Future vision and strategy.
For a project like building modernisation, this approach allows for the involvement of people who already know the building, such as the in-house facility management or maintenance company, who can be an invaluable resource to get these projects done. Small companies are agile and flexible compared to large corporations. To complement this, companies like Schneider Electric have the reach and resources that only a global organisation can provide.
Modern buildings, whether renovated or new, demand a variety of skill sets to reduce energy waste. They are about value creation, not technical topics and stakeholders need the ability to communicate with end users, not just general contractors. They need a collaborative effort of partnerships and a broad toolbox of solutions to achieve success: the EcoXpert Partner Program provides this.
