Digital and sustainable transformation of buildings

Digital and sustainable transformation of buildings

The energy crisis and climate change call for urgent action — especially in buildings. Transformative technology to create smarter and autonomous buildings is already available. Explore this white paper to understand how to enhance building efficiency while preserving value and learn more about the new technology requirements to overcome those challenges.

The environmental impact of buildings today

Humanity today faces a twofold challenge consisting of an energy crisis and a climate emergency. As they are interlinked and reinforce one another, they require action that is all the more urgent.

Charting a path toward a sustainable energy future will require at the same time a reduction of consumption and an increase of efficiency. Given this twin imperative, there is a need to decrease the environmental impact of our lifestyles — including in the built environment, where some of the greatest energy savings and efficiency gains can be achieved. Currently, buildings account for 40% of global energy consumption, one quarter of which is accrued during the construction phase. They also generate 40% of global CO2 emissions, of which 27% can be attributed to building operations alone. Clearly, there is a huge savings potential here: Worldwide, 80% of commercial floor area is in buildings that are not equipped with any smart technologies and which therefore start at very low efficiency. Most of them are small and of medium complexity.

A significant share of the data that are generated by or can be derived from buildings and their environments are not used at all. Purely in terms of comfort, convenience and efficiency, this is a significant omission, but in light of the global energy crisis, it must be regarded as a dramatic deficiency. Importantly, given the age of existing structures and the average lifetime of buildings, all new buildings should already be net-zero.