Smart buildings coming, but slowly

CHICAGO — It's tough to get commercial building owners to spend money, as any mechanical or HVAC contractor can attest, even with a strong business case. That holds true for JLL, or Jones Lang Lasalle, a large building management firm, said Robert Best, head of energy and sustainability services for JLL. JLL manages a large portfolio of buildings owned by other people.

Best spoke during Penton's IoT Emerge conference here in early November.

Best noted the ratio for commercial building expenditures of 3-30-300, which means that for every $3 spent in energy costs, a building tenant spends $30 for the space and $300 on Human Resources. Any increase in attendance or productivity pays off more than any other investment. A two percent increase in productivity yields costs savings of $6/sq.ft.

Based on that, Best told IoT Emerge attendees about what is considered to be the “gold standard” of productivity studies, a Harvard study in which researchers manipulated CO2 levels in a facility. Over the course of six weeks, tenants were periodically asked to complete a quiz that focused on nine cognitive skills. The study found with scientific certainty that better indoor air quality leads to higher cognitive scores. Going hand-in-hand with IAQ, are acoustics, lighting, temperature, ergonomics and privacy.

A green building, then, increases employee satisfaction and can make a company a so-called “great place to work,” and that can lead to an increase in a firm’s stock price.

Armed with that kind of information, one would think that commercial building owners could be sold on retrofits. Nope. JLL runs into the same reluctance that contractors often experience, Best said.

JLL actively pitches its customers on retrofits and even with all of the buildings that the firm manages, it only has about three or four proposals out at any one time, Best said. JLL tries for a holistic approach that includes HVAC, lighting, security and elevators. Best advises balky owners to start with a lighting retrofit. It’s something that they can understand and it's easy to execute. It also gives the building owner immediate savings in energy and maintenance costs.

Existing HVAC and lighting systems in buildings are an impediment because most cannot — or are difficult — to retrofit for individual control. Ideally tenants would be able to control the temperature and lighting in their space with their phones. That would also require building control systems that are smarter than often seen today.

Consumers will ultimately push building owners into such retrofits because they have smart products in their homes or they like being able to open the door to their hotel room with the hotel’s app.

Smart buildings are coming, Best said, just not as quickly as one would hope.