3 New Smart Building Trends

According to Building Technology Provider Honeywell's Vice President, here are some of the upcoming Smart Building Trends to look forward to in the near future:

Employees will expect better and healthier indoor Air Quality

COVID-19 changed the way professionals think about the health of indoor workspaces. As workers return to the office, experts are sounding the alarm about indoor air quality (IAQ) and encouraging them to better educate themselves about it. Building owners and employers are encouraged to deploy ventilation and filtration systems that promote healthier conditions and to adopt technologies that monitor and display the state of IAQ to workers. These healthy building upgrades will become important for improving employee health and wellbeing.

AI Technology to track the success of decarbonization measures

Buildings and vehicle fleets are usually the largest energy-using assets companies have. A study by the United Nations Environment Programme estimated that buildings, construction and transportation made over 60% of CO2 emissions within the past year. While many companies have sought to achieve zero-carbone emissions to reduce the environmental impact of these assets, the sector finds difficulty in accurately measue and monitor their progress. AI-driven technologies are proving effective at making buildings more efficient and assisting in helping to track the progress on environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets.

Smart buildings will change working conditions

More workers will return to the office this year, but their working conditions may look different. Workforces are increasingly distributed, work styles are changing and new and more flexible schedules are emerging. These changes will prompt building managers and employers to rethink how they use and manage spaces and building systems. New usage patterns may mean offices offer quiet environments for individual work, meeting spaces, and rooms for training. Smart technologies exist that can detect the number of inhabitants and adjust energy usage, indoor cooling, and lighting in real time. This will make simpler for facility managers to reactively adapt to the wellbeing of the inhabitants, whilst becoming more energy-efficient in the future.