How to Use Your Building Analytics to get a Competitive Advantage

Jul 14, 2022
Brett

There are four ways to use building analytics to decrease operational costs, lengthen equipment life, and guide capital upgrade decisions.

The built environment in Australia is hastening the achievement of net zero goals. All significant buildings, workplaces, shopping centres, airports, and public attractions in Australia have owners, investors, and managers who place a greater emphasis on sustainability programmes and on measures that can be measured.

It’s smart business to get towards net zero goals more quickly than only for regulatory or political reasons. Costs associated with energy are large and increasing. Commercial buildings in Australia account for around 25% of all energy demand and 10% of carbon emissions. Less energy-efficient structures cost more to maintain and have a tougher time luring new occupants.

The secret to maximising performance and decreasing emissions is to make the most of the resources you already have. And to do that, it’s necessary to use data analytics to comprehend how created assets function. Today, it is possible to compile data from a huge variety of devices to get a full picture of what’s going on.

Here are four strategies for utilising building data to decrease operating costs, lengthen equipment life, and guide capital upgrade decisions.

1. Data-driven governance and decision-making

Building analytics gives management teams more accurate forecasting, budgeting, and scenario modelling capabilities by providing improved insight into both recent and historical building performance. Analytics-generated insights and results can be used to guide new regulations and facilitate organisational change.

IoT sensors make it possible to monitor system performance in real-time and provide information that may be utilised to plan preventative and just-in-time maintenance. An alarm can be sent to a maintenance engineer when a machine’s performance begins to deviate from its ideal specifications so they can address the problem before it worsens.

Although almost any machine can be seen, a lot of the data it produces has historically been locked up, making its unlocking extremely important. Having timely access to the proper information is always the first step in making great judgments. A crucial first step is to invest in technology that can gather the appropriate data and normalise it so it can be used.

2. Performance evaluation

Setting key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracking measurable success against metrics that can help with industry compliance and reports to the board and investors are made possible by building analytics for property owners and managers.

Indoor temperature, CO2 levels, customer satisfaction, occupancy, tenant and customer feedback, and tenancy renewal rates are a few examples of what this can be. Building analytics can precisely identify the areas of a building that function best and worst, making it simpler to locate and fix equipment problems and comfort problems.

3. Achieve and surpass ESG goals

For the built environment, there are a variety of widely used sustainability evaluations and indices. Due to the growing significance that investors and stakeholders place on generating returns that are both financially beneficial and climate-friendly, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives are now at the forefront of business goals. Your GRESB, WELL, NABERS, GreenStar, BREEAM, and LEED scores will improve as a result of increasing the sustainability performance of each asset through energy savings, enhanced thermal comfort, and better indoor air quality.

These standards each provide insightful information about a building’s environmental footprint. It’s doubtful that a single collection of data will satiate such a wide mix of needs because different stakeholders require distinct insights and information. Achieving a starting rating in any of these systems is significant, but continual evaluation is essential. For instance, many investment bonds need constant monitoring to guarantee compliance over the course of the bond. Additionally, boards are becoming more concerned with the building assets’ long-term stability. It is crucial to have access to data that provides present, historical, and modelling estimates of future performance.

4. More knowledge for contractors and facility managers

Facility managers and contractors can make better judgments thanks to building analytics. Teams are better able to comprehend their buildings and the intricate web of services they include when they have access to the appropriate data. Dashboards break down the historical silos that have kept insights hidden by offering facilities managers and contractors a venue to exchange knowledge, troubleshoot issues, and track results. As a result, the time it takes to identify problems and fix them is greatly improved while costs are decreased.

Facilities managers can eliminate intuition and guesswork from operating and capital spending decision-making by using data intelligently. Technicians can identify and correct problems faster than ever before thanks to data collection, AI, and machine learning models, which improve operational effectiveness and decrease downtime. Additionally, the C-suite can be given more authority to decide where to allocate capital funds.

Many large buildings can be made to function better, but owners and managers haven’t had the information they need to know exactly what modifications to make to prevent energy and financial waste. Building owners and managers can identify these chances for improvement by utilising sophisticated, data-driven solutions in the appropriate location.