For many organizations, sustainability begins with their physical buildings, which are often the biggest contributors to energy consumption. Globally, buildings account for 37 percent of energy and process-related greenhouse gas emissions. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the average commercial building wastes a staggering one-third of the energy it consumes through practices like leaving computer monitors on at night, keeping air conditioning running on the weekends or using excessive lighting in unoccupied spaces. This reality places increasing pressure on facility managers to implement green practices, improve energy efficiency and manage their facilities' carbon footprints, all while keeping costs under control.

For organizations committed to sustainability — sometimes due to government regulations or investing mandates — optimizing facility operations is an essential first step. To start, property owners and FMs should begin by exploring various strategies and smart building technologies to develop a plan that manages energy consumption and emissions and helps improve overall facility performance.

Understanding a facility’s environmental footprint

Several factors directly impact a facility’s energy consumption and emissions. For example, outdated or poorly maintained HVAC systems can waste energy, leading to higher energy costs and suboptimal indoor air quality (IAQ) conditions. Traditional lighting technologies, such as incandescent bulbs, are far less energy-efficient than modern LED lighting solutions.

However, the most significant factor is often the lack of effective energy management practices. For example: while nearly 60 percent of large commercial buildings (those encompassing more than 50,000 square feet) have a building automation system to optimize HVAC and lighting, only 13 percent of small- to medium-size buildings (less than 50,000 square feet) have automated building technology. This leaves over 75 percent of all commercial buildings without a building automation system. Facilities without proper monitoring and optimization systems frequently experience unnecessary energy waste, hindering sustainability goals.

To accelerate sustainability efforts, organizations must prioritize facility energy efficiency. By addressing these factors with smart technologies, organizations can help reduce their environmental impact and manage operational costs.

Using AI & smart building technology to optimize energy management

Even for experienced FMs, determining where to start can be daunting when organizations set ambitious sustainability goals. The key to success lies in creating a focused, actionable plan tailored to the facility's unique needs. Smart building technologies can be a powerful tool to help facility managers achieve those goals.

Consider this scenario: An organization is implementing a smart building strategy across its multi-building campus. Each building houses data and engineering departments, along with back-office operations, all of which are significant energy consumers. To address this challenge, the organization is developing a comprehensive strategy that incorporates smart technologies to monitor and control energy use across the campus. This approach enables the organization to engage in real-time data analysis to implement cost management processes and optimize energy usage efforts, helping the organization manage its overall energy footprint.

To establish a sustainability plan for an organization, property and facilities managers should focus on early priority areas:

1. Conduct a thorough assessment

Before starting, it is important to understand a facility's current energy performance. However, many facilities lack the right tools and resources to establish an effective baseline. While reviewing historical utility records can provide some insights, energy audits powered by smart building technology and AI offer a more advanced holistic assessment of a building’s infrastructure and can proactively identify potential areas of improvement.

AI-powered energy audits can provide detailed insights that assess a facility's infrastructure, identify potential inefficiencies and help inform the solution design. It is like getting a personalized blueprint for energy efficiency. With a solid baseline, FMs can pinpoint the areas that will benefit most from energy-saving measures. Examples of insights an audit can reveal include an HVAC system running full blast in less populated parts of a building, lighting systems left on during off-hours or anomalous overuse discoveries in a certain area.

Remember, every building is unique. For example, a warehouse may always need temperature control, whereas an office might benefit from reduced energy usage on weekends. Seasonal variations in energy demands should also be factored into the assessment to optimize for changing utility rates and weather conditions.

To successfully implement a smart building strategy, an organization should start by clearly defining its goals and priorities. The FM team should assess the current building infrastructure to determine whether smart building technology aligns with the organization’s objectives. Conducting a comprehensive energy audit is the next crucial step, leveraging AI-driven analytics to establish a baseline for energy consumption. This baseline provides valuable insights, allowing the organization to identify inefficiencies and prioritize areas for improvement. The data collected during this process helps to inform the broader energy optimization strategy, ensuring targeted and effective implementation. This initial assessment and audit are essential for evaluating infrastructure capabilities, uncovering inefficiencies and laying a strong foundation for a successful smart building transformation.

By establishing a solid baseline and continuously monitoring performance, FMs can use both historical and real-time data to make informed decisions that help manage costs and create more sustainable facilities.

2. Identify & implement tailored smart solutions

Many organizations prioritize carbon reduction, but facility managers also juggle objectives like cost-cutting, operational efficiency and enhanced occupant comfort. Smart building solutions offer a comprehensive approach to address these diverse needs.

Organizations looking to enhance energy efficiency, manage costs with real-time insights, optimize facility operations and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability goals may find a real-time energy management solution to be an ideal choice. These systems provide remote monitoring of HVAC controls, enabling FMs to conduct preventive maintenance to help ensure optimal performance. They can also detect energy anomalies, send real-time alerts to help FMs address issues promptly, and support cost management strategies.

While each facility is unique, modern smart building technologies can be customized to meet specific needs. Leveraging data analytics, AI and IoT sensors, smart technologies are transforming FM by providing data-driven insights and operational efficiencies. Here is how:

  • Data analytics: Advanced analytics platforms can enable facility managers to review data on energy consumption, air quality and leak detection to uncover conservation and cost-management opportunities. Having access to real-time insights and granular data allows building owners to identify inconsistent activity and pinpoint areas for improvement. Predictive analytics can further enhance efficiency by helping to enable proactive maintenance, reduce downtime and manage operational costs.

  • IoT sensors: Wireless sensors can monitor critical factors such as energy usage, IAQ or water leaks, providing insights into high energy use areas down to the fixture level. When integrated with smart building platforms, these easy-to-install sensors enable real-time tracking of building health and targeted energy-management actions.

  • Energy management software: These solutions offer comprehensive remote monitoring of facility operations, from HVAC controls to energy use detection, helping FMs stay on top of sustainability goals. Optimizing systems with features like setpoint recommendations helps support peak efficiency. Consistent energy monitoring over time provides a greater opportunity for long-term cost management.

Comprehensive smart building solutions that incorporate sensors, monitoring tools, AI-powered analytics and integrated platforms enable facilities to address occupant needs, manage utility expenses effectively and drive operational efficiency.

By taking a holistic approach — starting with an energy audit and implementing the right smart technologies — organizations can make meaningful progress toward sustainability goals.

3. Implement & monitor smart technologies

Once a smart building strategy is implemented, the real work begins: understanding and optimizing building performance. Analyzing building data can be time-consuming; however, the right smart building platform can help simplify the process by providing clear, streamlined insights. Using data from smart sensors and occupancy monitoring systems, FMs can identify specific areas for improvement, such as peak usage times and inefficient utilities. This data-driven approach enables property managers to make more informed decisions, optimize energy management and improve overall operational efficiency by automating routine tasks and minimizing the need for manual intervention. These strategies may include:

  • Automated controls: Priming HVAC and lighting systems to automatically adjust to real-time occupancy and environmental conditions. Building management systems can centrally automate controls across multiple buildings.

  • Regular energy audits: Conducting regular assessments to identify and address energy inefficiencies. Continuous monitoring can also measure the effectiveness of implemented changes against established baselines.

  • Occupant engagement: Encouraging energy-management behaviors through education, training and awareness campaigns. Empowering individuals to actively participate in energy efficiency measures can help contribute to overall sustainability advancements.

Each facility has unique areas for improvement, requiring tailored energy efficiency strategies. Data analysis often reveals unexpected energy waste, such as excessive consumption during periods of low occupancy. Smart technology solutions can identify specific rooms and activities contributing to this waste, enabling facilities teams to take targeted action. Common strategies include adjusting temperature settings, optimizing lighting schedules and implementing more occupancy-based controls. By taking a proactive, data-driven approach, organizations can enhance operational efficiency while making meaningful progress toward their sustainability goals.

Continuous monitoring is crucial to sustain energy efficiency improvements. By regularly assessing building performance, organizations can proactively identify and address potential problems, make data-driven adjustments to optimize efficiency and better adapt to unexpected events.

Cultivating long-term success

The integration of advanced smart building solutions requires a holistic approach that engages all levels of the organization. By fostering a culture of sustainability and energy responsibility, organizations can better manage their emissions and contribute positively to the environment while potentially impacting their bottom line. In this way, energy management evolves from a mere operational necessity into a powerful tool for strategic advantage, driving both innovation and sustainability forward.

As the emphasis on environmental responsibility and effective cost management continues to grow, organizations are increasingly recognizing that responsible energy management is not just a checkbox on a compliance list; it represents a strategic advantage in today’s competitive landscape. For facility owners and managers, prioritizing energy efficiency has become imperative. It is no longer seen as an optional initiative, but as a fundamental component that helps drive operational efficiency, cost management and sustainability efforts.