Smart Buildings Prove More Powerful with All Stakeholders Involved

Environment, sustainability, services optimization, funding — the list of areas that the Smart City will improve and benefit from is nearly endless. We’ve discussed the relationship between planners, politicians, citizens, engineers, technologists, and city agencies. Have we looked at enablement for the smart city?

WIPRO’s “Future Thought of Business, 2016”, a thought leadership initiative published “Smart Buildings Enable Smart Cities”:

“A variety of technologies must successfully interact to transform a normal building into a smart building. These technologies enable the optimization of facilities and generate economic and environmental benefits, which are the key objectives for developing sustainable smart cities. Smart building initiatives are generally developed and orchestrated independently from the larger city or municipal efforts relating to energy management and sustainability. Investing in smart buildings is a critical foundation that will enable smart cities of the future.”

Often we see smart cities being planned without the collaboration of key stakeholders such as commercial real estate developers and owners — the folks that own the buildings that businesses lease downtown. When this happens, the maximization of benefits that smart buildings, for example, could contribute to the overall ecosystem is minimized and the value of the potential proposition never realized.

So, what are smart buildings?

International Data Corporation (IDC) defines them as, “… a facility that utilizes advanced automation and integration to measure, monitor, control, and optimize operations and maintenance. The enabling technologies are characterized by a convergence of information technology and building automation. Smart Building solutions give building owners, operators, and other key decision-makers unprecedented visibility into equipment operations and building use courtesy of the real-time data generated by the sensors, monitors, and controls in a Smart Building solution configuration.”

As part of your smart city grid, smart buildings can play a key role in supporting improved efficiencies in traffic management, energy and water resources, to name a few. Consider who your stakeholders are and insure you’re including the smart building team in your process.