Home
About us
Projects
Publications
Newsletters
Conferences
Media
News
Contact
Search
Login
News
Search
Sign up for Newsletter
16 March 2012
GreenerBuildings: Buildings' 'Tower of Babel' problem: They can't share data
Source:
www.greenerbuildings.com
One of the underlying themes of the VERGE conference was "sharing" -- sharing cars through Buzzcar, standards for energy performance measurement, making data public, and generally pulling together to overcome energy and sustainability challenges.
Virtually every speaker touched on some aspect of social networking, shared analytics and rising levels of standardization in his or her industry.
Except me.
In my presentation, I pointed out that ASHRAE started developing communication protocols for sharing building performance information in 1987, and took nine years to release the final standard.
Yet today, the large controls companies still use their own proprietary, closed systems, resisting the standard protocols. That collective decision prevented progress toward smart portfolios, unless every building used the same manufacturer's controls -- a virtual impossibility, given the way companies constantly change their occupancy through relocation, acquisitions and mergers.
By contrast, technology standards like HTTP, HTML and URLs were developed and adopted in the space of two years, leading to a revolution in TVs, cameras, phones, household appliances -- oh, and computers.
It took a new wave of controls companies to create products that translate data from these towers of Babel into a common language. Our firm looked at these new firms and selected Pacific Controls to power our IntelliCommand offering, which combines the technology of controls companies with the human expertise that comes from managing 2 billion square feet of property.
Listening to the VERGE speakers talk about the strides their industries have made by sharing information reinforces my feeling that the buildings industry is way behind the curve. It's time to catch up.
News
2 February 2009
Responsible Investor: Amy Domini on Obama, SRI returns and clipping hedge funds
27 January 2009
Le Monde: ECCE Researcher winns the European Finance and Sustainability Research Awards
27 January 2009
UN CCC: Obama announces strong moves on the environment
22 January 2009
Responsible Investor: US SIF puts proxy vote and fiduciary duty on Obama agenda
22 January 2009
Financial Standard: UK coalition pushes responsible investment cause
19 January 2009
London Stock Exchange: Government urged to make pension funds ''responsible investors''
17 January 2009
The Independent: Ethical stocks struggling - time for serious investors to ditch their morals?
16 January 2009
MS NBC: PricewaterhouseCoopers Acquires Sustainable Finance Limited
14 January 2009
Financial Standard: Nordic pensions unite for ESG
13 January 2009
Global Pensions: UNPRI group targets 130 companies
[
1
][
2
][
3
][
4
][
5
][
6
][
7
][
8
][
9
][
10
][
11
][
12
][
13
][
14
][
15
][
16
][
17
][
18
][
19
][
20
][
21
][
22
][
23
][
24
][
25
][
26
][
27
][
28
][
29
][
30
][
31
][
32
][
33
][
34
][
35
][
36
][
37
][
38
][
39
][
40
][
41
][
42
][
43
][
44
][
45
][
46
][
47
][
48
][
49
][
50
][
51
][
52
][
53
][
54
][
55
][
56
][
57
][
58
][
59
][
60
][
61
][
62
][
63
][
64
][
65
][
66
][
67
][
68
][
69
][
70
][
71
][
72
][
73
][
74
][
75
][
76
][
77
][
78
][
79
][
80
][
81
][
82
][
83
][
84
][
85
][
86
][
87
][
88
][
89
][
90
][
91
][
92
][
93
][
94
][
95
][
96
][
97
][
98
][
99
][
100
][
101
][
102
][
103
][
104
][
105
][
106
][
107
][
108
][
109
][
110
][
111
][
112
][
113
][
114
][
115
][
116
][
117
][
118
][
119
][
120
][
121
][
122
][
123
][
124
][
125
][
126
][
127
][
128
][
129
][
130
][
131
][
132
][
133
][
134
][
135
][
136
]
Sustainable Investment Research Platform
Provided by Webforum