Real estate reaps smart technology paybacks

Smart buildings could be characterized as a venue for colliding cultures as real estate moves away from a tradition of proprietary systems and IT takes on a growing role in operations. A seminar at last week’s PM Expo in Toronto even presented that theme in an energy management vs. building automation context, albeit largely as a teaser for a discussion of the broader linkage of technologies to deliver high-performance buildings.

“I think we’re at a point where it is no longer a conversation about a building automation system or an energy management system or about water management. It’s a conversation about the environment,” observed Chris Piché, a principal with the engineering and green design firm, Integral Group, and one of the seminar presenters.

Elsewhere at PM Expo, real estate owners/managers and IT service providers likewise explored how smart technology and innovation are transforming buildings, as part of a panel discussion sponsored by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Greater Toronto. They pointed to the efficiencies and savings that can come with real-time monitoring and operational responses, which also support asset value and competitiveness in the marketplace through enhanced ability to attract and retain tenants.

“I suspect the evolution of technology in our buildings is going to come rather quickly,” mused the discussion moderator, Lachlan MacQuarrie, vice president, real estate management, with Oxford Properties Group. “My advice would be: you probably don’t have as much time as you think you have.”

Network infrastructure figures prominently in the first steps to get open systems converged on a platform for collection, integration and dispersal of data. From there, it becomes something of a discovery process for data applications — ranging from the obvious, such as energy-use monitoring and verification, to the perhaps more esoteric.

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