ADVICE & OPINION
DIGITAL DECARBONISING
FMJ AIMS TO SUPPORT TECHNICAL EXPERTISE IN THE FM MARKET
Sadaf Askari, ICL Partner Business Manager at IES explains the beneƛ ts to FMs in bringing digital innovation into ESG strategies
Robust ESG (Environmental,
Social and Governance)
strategies are important not just
to curb global warming, but to
reflect an increasing awareness by
consumers, partners and investors
that net-zero buildings also have a
financial benefit.
Facilities managers can turn to
digital innovation to assess the carbon
e iciency of a single building or an
entire portfolio, to see where changes
need to be made to reduce the carbon
footprint. One area that has had
some incredibly beneficial results is
Digital Twins. This technology allows
building managers to see a digital
or virtual version of their facilities to
assess and improve their e iciency and
sustainability status.
CREATING THE WORLD’S GREENEST
CAMPUS
Digital Twins are arguably the key to
decarbonising the built environment.
These virtual replicas are fully scalable
from a single building to an entire city
and respond and behave just like their
real-world counterparts. Delivering
the data-driven information needed
to uncover significant energy, carbon,
capital and operational savings, also
takes resource use, transport and
16 NOVEMBER 2021
socioeconomic factors into account.
With the improved e iciency
a orded to buildings through Digital
Twin analysis, organisations can not
only improve the eco-credentials of
their buildings but also help to make
financial savings.
Demonstrating these savings is
Nanyang Technological University’s
(NTU) 250-hectare EcoCampus in
Singapore. NTU wanted to understand
at campus level which energy-saving
solutions would perform best and
identify the optimum scale and
location for its deployment. Digital Twin
technology enabled NTU to see a full
visualisation of its 21 campus buildings
complete with virtual testing for
building performance optimisation.
A masterplanning (iCD) model of the
EcoCampus, detailing energy signatures
for each building, was created and used
as a baseline to simulate and analyse
testbed technologies. These ranged
from building envelope improvements,
to light sensors, chiller optimisation
and smart plugs that ensure appliances
are switched o aˆ er hours.
During the implementation phase,
the best testbed solutions were put into
practice by calibrating operational data
from utilities and Building Management
Systems (BMS) into virtual models.
Data was gathered and analysed
to investigate faults across the
campus’s 21 buildings, for example,
high or low COΠlevels, unstable o
coil temperatures and faulty energy
meters.
A selection of the proposed
energy-saving interventions were
simulated using the digital twin to
determine potential savings, helping
to uncover 31 per cent average energy
savings, 9.6kt of carbon savings and
a total cost saving of approximately
$4.7million.
DESIGNING THE WORLD’S
FIRST NET-ZERO FAST-FOOD
RESTAURANT
The US’s first net-zero designed
fast-food restaurant – McDonald’s at
Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando,
combines modern architecture with
technology to generate enough
energy on-site to cover its energy
needs on a net annual basis.
WSP used IES’s Virtual Environment
soˆ ware – part of its Digital Twin
technology suite - to conduct detailed
and extensive energy analysis to
inform the design and ensure it was
on track for net-zero targets.
With the high volume of meals being
served, even the heat gain from the
food has an impact on the space. The
team virtually tested natural ventilation
options using MacroFlo resulting in the
eventual implementation of a hybrid
HVAC system that uses standard VRF
cooling as well as natural ventilation.
By gathering data from another
McDonald’s, a schedule for each piece
of equipment could be created in the
Virtual Environment, revealing that
grills and fryers were not run all day,
despite it being a 24-hour premise.
Using real-time data and translating it
into more e icient scheduling in the
model facilitated a lower energy usage
and also gave understanding of the
most energy-intensive equipment.
OPERATIONAL DASHBOARDS
One of the greatest benefits of
embedding Digital Twins within ESG
strategies is the ability to leverage the
ever-growing Internet of Things (IoT)
infrastructure to e ectively gather,
manage and interrogate operational
data across your building or portfolio,
in a single pane view.
In the case of one UK city council, the
energy management team were able
to use IES Digital Twin technology to
facilitate centralised data monitoring,
analysis and proactive maintenance
across a portfolio of 35 public
buildings.
The physics-based simulation,
machine learning and AI capabilities
of the Digital Twin make it possible to
learn from historical data patterns to
detect anomalies and create alerts to
notify of any unexpected behaviours.
This enables energy and FM teams
to be much more proactive in their
maintenance approach, prioritising
repairs and, in some cases, predicting
faults before they happen.
Digital Twins present an allencompassing
solution to analyse and
address such considerations, alongside
energy and carbon targets, providing
yet another compelling reason to bring
the technology central to your facility’s
ESG strategy.
FAST FACTS