Commercial building energy management benefits for businesses and the environment
Can your business afford to ignore commercial building energy management benefits? The past few years have held important lessons for governments and businesses around energy. The climate emergency means the race to cut emissions continues with increasing urgency (and increasing regulation around emissions and operations). It has also been a time of steadily rising energy costs, which has tied the need to reduce consumption to critical cost-cutting for sustainability and profitability.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put energy security into sharp focus and dramatically altered global energy. Consumers have faced market volatility, concerns around energy security, and price hikes. This process has also naturally led to strong scrutiny of the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, which has cast the need for resource preservation into stark relief.
As businesses and organisations adopt digital transformation processes into their operations, our businesses, buildings, and cities are becoming smarter. Within the broader smart building context, smart building automation and energy management provides simple solutions and easy benefits for businesses looking to optimise their energy consumption.
What is energy monitoring and management?
Smart commercial building energy management combines infrastructure with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for advanced collection and analysis of an organisation’s energy consumption. This whole-of-operations insight allows building owners and managers to understand consumption over time and identify the factors that influence usage.
This creates opportunities to identify areas of potential savings and wastage for data-inspired decision-making.
The interconnectedness of smart buildings provide additional benefits around energy savings. For example, commercial smart lighting control systems are practical and simple ways that achieve energy saving benefits within the smart building context.
What is the main purpose of energy management?
The primary aim of any energy management system is to understand, control, and ultimately reduce consumption. The benefits of smart utilities management is that reduced energy consumption translates into reduced operational costs. Additionally, concern for the environment is becoming a business and policy priority and smart energy management plays into a reduced carbon footprint and environmental impact.
10 commercial building energy management benefits
1. Energy Management Systems For Commercial Buildings Boost Efficiencies
Building energy monitoring from Smarter Technologies Group creates a digital twin of an organisation’s energy profile to provide smart, detailed, and real-time understanding of its energy consumption.
This pragmatic approach to energy helps business owners and managers to identify areas of potential savings, waste, and peak output performance. This enables organisations and individuals to adjust behaviour for improved energy efficiency.
It also inspires effective short-, medium-, and long-term strategic decision-making for boosted efficiencies and energy savings. Automated record-keeping and pre-programmed alerts and notifications delivered to a remotely accessible dashboard make for real time and long-term information sharing and simplified reporting.
2. Building Automation and Energy Management Save Costs
Improved efficiencies translate into cost savings, but there are additional cost benefits for businesses around their energy management. This includes accurate billing through smart sub-metering solutions as one example.
Almost every benefit on this list has a cost benefit for businesses, whether directly or indirectly. The historical data around energy usage also allows for the generation of more accurate predictions and flexibility to changing market conditions and in-house factors.
3. An Energy Efficiency Building Management System Reduces A Business’s Carbon Footprint
A building’s carbon footprint is linked to the amount of energy it uses. This means that a building energy monitoring system is a key tool for sustainable and environmental changes. By monitoring consumption and understanding usage, waste is reduced. Smart energy monitoring and management acts as a springboard for changes that reduce a building’s carbon footprint.
As regulation reflects the urgency for sustainable practices, the best way to strategise around and streamline changes in businesses is by using smart technologies in working towards net zero carbon buildings.
4. Commercial Building Energy Management Helps With Load Balancing
Supply and demand is directly connected to energy quality and security. Smarter Technologies Group’s smart energy efficiency building management system utilises a load balancing adapter for streamlined energy usage.
The system also provides real-time alerts around surges and power outages. These IoT solutions have two-way communication capabilities that allow for devices to be disabled or turned off remotely.
5. Smart Building Energy Management Maps Return On Investment
From the ROI you expect to receive on the outlay of the energy management system to the lifespan of appliances, machinery, and equipment, smart building energy management works to achieve this.
Real-time energy data provides insights that reduce wear and tear, help you to regulate power usage and react to energy leaks and their sources.
The collection and analysis of historical data makes for measurable and evidenced improvements. This plays into strategic decision-making processes, forecasting, and future optimisation.
You may also be interested in: How Smart Commercial Buildings Maximise Revenue Potential
6. Better Energy Profiles Mean Enhanced Employee Productivity and Wellness
Together with smart building solutions, smart technologies provide valuable insights on the work environment and indoor spaces. More comfortable workplaces tend to be more productive workplaces.
These technologies allow for highly-efficient energy-focused adjustments around heating, lighting, and ventilation for example without negatively impacting employee comfort and wellbeing.
7. An Improved Environmental Profile is a Strong Factor For Your Brand
Sustainability and concerns for the environment have entered the realms of business more prominently than ever in recent years. According to a report, more than a third of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainability and 85% of global respondents reported making a move to more sustainable purchase behaviours in the past five years.
The move to more environmentally friendly and energy efficient business processes has the power to improve and increase customer relationships and make your brand more appealing to investors. Eco-innovation has also been linked to 15% growth over competitors – something that makes it a worthwhile consideration for businesses of all sizes.
Using smart technology like the solutions available from Smarter Technologies Group means environmental and sustainability claims are backed up by data. The investment in technology for sustainability also reflects a commitment to innovation for sustainable change into the future.
8. Streamlined Facilities Management and Maintenance Processes
The real-time insights provided by smart energy management technologies serve to inform on the running of critical equipment and machinery. The pragmatism associated with real-time monitoring makes for optimised maintenance scheduling and instant reaction to undesirable changes.
9. Building Energy Management Builds Resilience
Control over energy usage equates to more resilience in the face of changing market conditions. This is also supported by the mechanism for accurate billing and the role smart technologies play in automation.
10. A Strong Energy Profile Plays a Role In Saleability
Smart energy management systems are an attractive building feature for prospective buyers and investors. If the future is going to be more mindful of energy consumption and sustainability, this is something to include in any plans to add value to your property and business.
Partner with Smarter Technologies to realise commercial building energy management benefits
Contact Smarter Technologies Group today to find out more about our smart building energy monitoring and management solutions and how we can provide commercial building energy management benefits that make your building smarter, safer and more sustainable.