Building the Transition to Net Zero through Energy Efficiency Optimization

The built world accounts for 37% of the world’s carbon emissions. The public is becoming more and more aware of this, and governments are imposing steep fines on energy-draining buildings.

It’s no longer good enough to make energy efficiency claims without the reports and data to back it up.
The developed world is evolving, and expectations for real estate require a significant change to the current management and operation of buildings.

Technologies to reduce energy consumption already exist, but are slow to be widely adopted by building owners, operators, developers, and financiers. However, with the recent spike in energy prices, increased social push for sustainability, and the global warming crisis, the cost of doing nothing increases daily.

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Impact of Gas Shortages on Building Management

Economic conditions, availability of energy resources, and increasing demand are prime factors contributing to the instability in energy prices. The war in Ukraine led the EU into increased competition for alternative gas supplies, ultimately driving up pressure on the international gas market with an unprecedented rise in the cost of gas.

With the surging gas crisis, there’s an urgent need for energy efficiency in commercial and residential buildings. Although comprehensive retrofits of commercial buildings can reduce energy use by up to 40%, they are nowhere near the scale needed to meet climate goals.

Buildings are an asset, and to keep them generating revenue owners need to adopt more modern management strategies including improved real-time access to data for intelligent decision-making, accelerated deployment of analytical tools for greater visibility into building operations, and technical solutions to improve the accuracy of data for reporting. The financial and environmental cost of implementing these tools is far less than the cost of consuming energy as prices continue to rise.

The Business Case for Energy Efficiency Optimization

Reducing energy consumption in buildings makes financial sense, but also has strong social and environmental impact. 

·       Decarbonizing and digitizing buildings can save businesses over 12% on energy costs.

·       Low-carbon, efficient buildings and cities are more resilient to changing energy prices and demands.

·       Connected, technical buildings provide new and enticing jobs for the emerging workforce.

·       Intelligent(smart) buildings offer improved health and wellbeing of tenants.

Designed to Drive Building Efficiency

Switch has defined the first three steps toward building efficiency:

1.     Determine the baseline energy consumption, cost, and carbon emissions for a single building or an entire portfolio. The Switch Platform offers a single solution for tracking energy efficiency across a multi-use portfolio

2.     Address immediate opportunities for increased building efficiency. Switch makes suggestions to help prioritize work.

3.     Implement a system to benchmark against the baseline to determine process day over day, week over week, or month over month. The Switch Portfolio Benchmarking package is an option for this system.

After these first three steps, the journey to energy efficiency is unique for every building, site, and owner. Involving technology and data from the start makes that journey a profitable and rewarding experience for everyone involved.

Or, there’s always the option to pay the increasing cost of inaction.

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Srivastava, R.,and J. Mah. 2022. Moving the Needle on Comprehensive CommercialRetrofits. Washington, DC: American Council for an Energy-EfficientEconomy. aceee.org/research-report/b2203

It’s a “laydown misère” – the gas crisis means energy efficiency and building electrification needs to be fast tracked - The Fifth Estate

Energy Management Systems Market Worth $75.0 Billion by 2027 - Exclusive Report by MarketsandMarkets™ (prnewswire.com)

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