Transforming buildings to be smart and sustainable

LEED is the coveted and internationally recognized green building certification system. It helps improve performance metrics across water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, indoor environmental quality, stewardship of resources and sensitivity to buildings’ impacts on people, places and the planet.

WELL is a building standard pursued Many companies are focused on meeting these requirements and evaluating sustainable investments.  For example, Schneider Electric, together with the World Economic Forum’s Electricity Industry community of CEOs, created a new system value framework to more holistically evaluate the effect of policies and investments on the economy, society, the environment and the energy system. The framework aims to guide policy-makers, business leaders and the energy community’s stakeholders to thoroughly evaluate the outcomes of their investments.

While a lot of progress is being made, the key to achieving the full impact of sustainability from IoT is focusing on integration and scale. Multiple layers of the technology stack need to share information in real time, including sensors, software platforms and end-user applications. Many building owners today aren’t even capturing historical data or applying real-time analytics. This is a huge missed opportunity.  By deploying IoT and advancements in AI and 5G, buildings can be reinvented to meet organizations’ ESG goals, providing safer, healthier and more efficient spaces.

About the author

Vikrant Viniak is a managing director at Accenture, where he focuses on the high-tech industry. He is passionate about solving complex problems using creative thinking; bold and iconoclastic action; and data-driven analysis and decision-making. He helps clients with their most strategic imperatives, including digital transformation, driving growth through digital operating models, everything-as-a-service transformations and strategic partnerships.