22 October 2018 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
Converting to smart building technology enables organisations to cut energy costs, meet regulations such as air quality and provide the best environments for occupants, visitors and staff, according to Siemens Financial Services.
Its research estimates the potential for "self-financing" smart building conversion across 13 countries in three sectors: 1) commercial buildings, 2) government buildings, and 3) hospitals.
The study notes that smart technology can reduce energy consumption in non-domestic buildings by up to 25 per cent.
Each day that is not spent converting to smart buildings is a day in which valuable financial and environmental resources have been, in effect, wasted, states the study.
But while the smart buildings technology market is growing, the pressures on public and private sector budgets mean that finance managers and CFOs are struggling to prioritise capital investment for building conversion.
Gary Thompson of Siemens Financial Services said: "CFOs in the private and public sector are increasingly recognising the compelling case for smart buildings conversion, but find it difficult to prioritise such capital investment over other business or operating requirements. The benefit of self-financing arrangements, which harness future energy savings, is that capital is no longer an obstacle."
Smart buildings use advanced technology and data to improve building performance in areas such as energy, operations, security, and comfort - ultimately lowering the costs of building operations and service, and generating significantly higher user-satisfaction rates and employee productivity. To achieve these benefits, smart buildings deploy the intelligent infrastructure enabled by digitalisation.