Last year provided many unforeseen challenges for the building management industry; despite it all, sustainability commitments stayed steady. But we
must seize the opportunity to shift the narrative in the energy industry away from efficiency, towards continuous optimization.
This year has shown many industries that it’s no longer enough to focus on “set
it and forget it” energy-efficiency tasks. Instead, sustainability managers must
shift to continuous resource optimization of their facilities. The
COVID-19 pandemic not
only significantly impacted business operations, it left countless buildings
dealing with fluctuating occupancy levels. Nevertheless, sustainability and
energy teams rose to the challenge to do more with less in order to meet their
goals.
2021 is setting out to be a year of resilience, and many hold hope that they
will eventually return to the office. Our new State of Energy Management
survey,
which we carried out in partnership with Smart Energy Decisions, found that
building managers expect occupancy levels to be at 75 percent or higher, which
represents a 25-point increase from July 2020 to July 2021. This will increase
the need for better control over HVAC equipment (43 percent) and the ability to
monitor energy remotely (40 percent). But, how do facilities managers prepare
for the new year and a new normal?
The safe return back to commercial buildings
The pandemic has changed how building and facility managers view their occupants
and building amenities. Even with vaccine roll-out underway, occupancy levels
will continue to fluctuate — which has created an increased need for remote
management
solutions
for access anywhere.
The same survey found that the top three requirements for managing building
performance and protecting occupant health are: higher-efficiency HVAC (87
percent), better lighting (79 percent) and improved access to analytics derived
from actionable data (77 percent). These areas are not only important during the
return to public buildings, but will remain resource-saving solutions for years
after.
The role of technology in building sustainability
Energy leaders have long utilized Energy Management Information Systems
(EMIS) to advance sustainability goals, but industry-wide adoption continues
to lag. Our survey found that the two biggest barriers to implementing an EMIS
are the cost of adding meters (46 percent) and a lack of staff time to review
EMIS output (46 percent). To get buy-in for technology advancement, energy teams
routinely need to prove the ROI of manual processes that an EMIS can help
automate — this, in turn, enables teams to focus on higher-value priorities that
have the most impact on business objectives. An EMIS can also provide valuable
data to help establish a business case for future building or equipment-level
upgrades. Last, but certainly not least, an EMIS can provide energy teams
critical, real-time analysis and actionable data to reduce costs and maximize
building performance.
2020 didn’t stop sustainability goals
Last year provided many unforeseen challenges for the building management
industry; but despite it all, the commitment to sustainability stayed steady.
Facility and energy managers from the same survey said that most of their
organizations were in the middle stages of their energy journey (27 percent) and
another 23 percent reported being “well on our way.” The “well on our way” and
“ahead of the crowd” respondents showed the largest increase over the same data
points in 2019. Moving toward automation will help teams meet organizational
resource-reduction goals faster and will provide the deeper insights required
for critical resource investment.
Despite the many challenges of 2020, the findings from our survey show an
opportunity to shift the narrative in the energy industry away from efficiency,
towards continuous optimization. Optimization enables organizations to focus on
their evolving needs to ensure building and occupant safety are consistently
being met without significantly increasing the investment of time from the
building management team. As the industry moves forward, leaders will need to
begin focusing on continuous and remote management of energy programs, combined
with measurement and verification that demonstrates success and ROI — all of
which will better equip them to handle shifting needs and priorities.
Published Feb 8, 2021 7am EST / 4am PST / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET
Sarah Diegnan is VP of Customer Success and Operations at BuildingOS, an Acuity Brands offering.