Trust in the future

There has been a huge uptake in the use of digital data within the built environment as a way of building a picture of the performance of estates and assets, be it energy consumption, occupancy trends or meeting ESG goals. But for the FM sector, the huge influx of solutions – particularly AI – has been treated with trepidation.

David Aird, Director of Net Zero & Energy Solutions at Amey offers some reassurance. He has been with Amey for over 18 years and has held a variety of posts, including Account Director and Regional Operations Director and now heads up Amey’s Net Zero capability, offering clients data-driven and connected solutions on how to transition to a more sustainable and efficient estate.

He maintains that the use of data, when combined with facilities and building management expertise, results in a deeper understanding of how buildings can be better utilised to enhance building performance.

Says Aird: “The technology piece is of course important, but while I like to understand how things work it’s really all around the outputs and ensuring that the tech does what it says on the tin. For some it is scary, particularly with AI, but ultimately, if you set the right parameters, digital data can help reduce the day-to-day approvals that were previously required to optimise many of the assets in the buildings that we look after.

“The analogy I would draw is that it’s when you recommend a person for a role, it’s an extension of yourself, and the same goes for deploying a piece of software. That’s a reflection of me and the organisation, which means that there’s an element of trust.”

ENERGY MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

This was the case with the introduction of Amey’s new energy solution E60+ which is designed to make real-time changes to building assets in response to how a property is used. The platform, which was developed by Grid Edge, was first deployed in Amey’s own sites.

Says Aird: “We’ve done some very intensive trials on kit as we only deploy something that we believe in, so by testing it on ourselves first we could gauge the results. Because it delivers an element of AI capability and learning it can identify issues that you wouldn’t know about unless you were constantly walking around a building at two o’clock in the morning and asking, ‘why is that on?’

“These insights mean being able to challenge how a BMS is set up versus the actual requirement of the facilities, as they may differ considerably.”

E60+ was able to provide dynamic, data-driven evidence at a site where all the heating and ventilation zones had been set up to run at the same time, irrespective of demand. By deconstructing and splitting those zones out – which cost around £700 – huge reductions were made in energy costs, leading to £30,000 savings in utilities.

The strategic projects teams work across a range of sectors, including defence, the public estate, local authorities and the private sector. This means says Aird: “No one glove fits all. In each project we’ll take a bespoke approach, and our account teams don’t just ‘sell’ to the customer. What we do is ask the right questions to find out what their frustrations are. It’s about understanding what the client’s needs are, and then providing a solution.”

Some clients are provided with a ‘decarbonisation roadmap’ that charts a route to understanding their objectives, for instance if they want to achieve net zero before 2030, the roadmap will help to deliver that within the timeframe.

Explains Aird: “With our decarbonisation roadmaps we can deploy a range of solutions across a vastly different set of clients, locations and building types, from listed buildings to depots to office blocks. It’s about understanding the estate, what its capabilities are, utilising the best output for the money that’s available and then providing a plan going forward.

“There are also varying degrees of maintenance spends available to our clients so we can identify the ‘best return on spend’ that is, a solution which is right for them.”