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Smart Buildings. Our Future Is Smart Smart buildings. Our future is smart. SmartScore white paper. April 2021. 1 Executive summary. The future of the built We are just at the start of the smart Why do we need smart buildings? environment is smart. building journey and it’s imperative Outlines the three trends that underpin that real estate gets smart now, the move to smart buildings: the increasing Not implementing and gets smart right. use of technology in our personal lives, technology for the changing nature of our professional For the past year WiredScore has been lives, including the recent experience of technology’s sake, conducting extensive work with the working from home, and the climate crisis. but the result of a WiredScore Smart Council, comprising over 90 tenants, landlords and other Defining a smart building. conversation amongst property professionals from around Answers the question ‘what is tenants, owners and the world, to develop an intellectual a smart building?’ with a user-centric, framework for smart buildings. What outcome-orientated approach; a smart technologists focused has become clear is that ‘smart’ building delivers outstanding outcomes on the outcomes that is an opaque subject for the industry – for all users, through digital technology, there is little agreement regarding to exceed their evolving expectations. the users of buildings what matters in a smart building: The four outcomes that users care about actually want. how to create one, how to work above all others are: an inspirational with the supply chain, or even experience, a sustainable building, what ‘smart’ itself means. This white a cost efficient building and one that paper provides clarity. is future-proof by design. 2 Measuring whether a building services, sustainability, maintenance is smart requires two different views: and optimization, and security. 1. Introduction. The view of the user: does The technological 1. the building provide functionality foundations for smart. 2. Why do we need smart buildings? to delight and attract people, Discusses the technological foundations and resolve the challenges that that underpin those functionalities, 3. Defining a smart building. users typically face? including digital connectivity, building systems, a landlord integration network, 4. What does a smart building deliver? The technological view: are governance, cybersecurity, and 2. the technological foundations data sharing. 5. The technological foundations for smart. to deliver those functionalities in place? We are extremely grateful to all those 6. Creating the definition. who have contributed to the thinking What does a smart building deliver? that has gone into this white paper, Discusses the functionalities a smart including the work of the WiredScore building should offer its users: individual Smart Council. We hope that it will and collaborative productivity, health serve to bring a smarter future closer and wellbeing, community and for us all. 3 1. Introduction. Successful buildings What people want and need has Ever present in our day-to-day, are about people. They always evolved over time, and our technology is the digital right hand buildings too have adapted. Now, most of us couldn’t live without. are tools that provide however, driven in part by advances Devices formerly designed to perform for human needs – in technology, our expectations are simple labour saving tasks, or provide transforming faster than ever before. peripheral entertainment are now shelter, security, a focal And our buildings need to respond – fundamental to the way we live, work point for community, a challenge in an industry where and navigate the world around us. the pace of change has always been or more specialist slow and measured. Watches, phones, televisions, outcomes such even cars… Our once gear-and-cog Although technology is both operated devices have digitized as wonderful acoustics a significant driver of change, to become highly intelligent, or a sterile surgical and a fundamental part of the solution, ever-learning smart machines. the changes we make as an industry At an accelerating pace, technology environment. need to start not from the technology, is developing in new ways to deliver but from the people. outcomes that enhance multiple aspects of our lives. Consider all Technological success is determined of the extraordinary advancements by the outcomes technology that have occurred in the past decade delivers for people: high-tech space alone. Now imagine that same level is not a goal in and of itself. of technological development 4 occurring in the decade to come. As the world has become more It’s an exhilarating thought, isn’t it? tech-centric, landlords have been steadily integrating technology into The built environment will need their spaces to increase tenant to keep up. Our offices, enduring productivity and drive operational physical spaces built to last decades, efficiency. This movement has been often seem largely untouched by slow to gain mass adoption and, until transformations elsewhere. But there now, the smart building debate has is a growing awareness in the industry been dominated by technologists and that offices are not immune to the technology firms. However, landlords changing world around them and and occupiers have started to make will need to evolve to remain relevant. their voices heard, and it is clear that To do so, a new concept has emerged the definitive perspective on what in real estate: the ‘smart building’. it means to implement and maintain a smart building must sit with those Smart buildings are inspirational, that build and use the space. For this sustainable, cost efficient and future- reason, the core of what it means proof spaces that put the users to be smart must be anchored in the at the center. Technology creates functionalities and benefits afforded the urgency for change, whilst to the building’s users. simultaneously providing the means to adapt to it. 5 2. Why do we need smart buildings? When deployed There are three clear and distinct When it comes to the future 1. Global data gathered in a 2021 survey conducted by WiredScore in partnership correctly, technology trends driving the desire – and of the working world, there’s now with Opinium Research. need – for technology to bring an undeniable desire for smarter enables our seamless our workplaces to life. The following spaces: four fifths of office workers engagement with will take a closer look at these trends, (79%) say they would like to work exploring how our expectations within a technologically advanced physically outstanding, of the built environment have shifted. office1. And, with nine in ten office human-centric spaces. workers saying that technology Technology in everyday life has significantly impacted many 1. is driving demand for more areas, or had a life changing impact data and better services. on all areas of their life, a tech-enabled environment isn’t just a nice-to-have Every aspect of our lives is driven for the working world, it’s essential. by data. We’ve become accustomed to a tech-enabled lifestyle: from It is, however, important not to deploy education to exercise, entertainment technology for technology’s sake. to ecommerce, our reliance on Less than half (47%)1 of office workers technology in our personal lives currently working in a technologically has normalized a level of speed, advanced building actually use accessibility and convenience, the available tech on a daily basis, and we now expect this to be suggesting that technology is often present in our professional lives too. implemented without full consideration of the end user. People use technology in their personal lives because 6 it’s useful, not just because it’s there. Our day-to-day jobs have become The workplace of the future must so dependent on the outcomes operate in the same way. technology can deliver that 98% of office workers say that they Changing would not be able to do their job of office workers say working habits. with the same level of ease without 2. that they would not be technology2, and over half say they able to do their job with The way we work has changed, wouldn’t be able to do their job at all. 98% the same level of ease and our workplaces need to adapt. This change in workplace habits was without technology.2 apparent long before the pandemic, Modern working habits are but our workplaces have been slow collaborative and driven by to adapt to the tech-dependency technology. Think shared documents, of the working world. video conferencing, cloud-based computing, emails and synced Offices rely on technology to bring digital diaries that give full visibility alive great, sociable, collaborative 2. Global data gathered in a 2021 survey conducted by WiredScore in partnership on who’s doing what and when spaces that still allow for individual with Opinium Research. within your company. productivity to flourish. 7 consider working in an environmentally 63% sustainable space to be very important.6 Beyond tech dependence, the recent The buildings in which we work The 3. https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector pandemic-induced shift in working now have to make us want 3. climate crisis. 4. https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/ WorldGBC-embodied-carbon-report- habits has emphasized how important to work there by offering flexible published#:~:text=Together%2C%20 building%20and%20construction%20 getting the actual office space right is. and personalized services. Tackling the climate crisis is the are,buildings)%20accounting%20for%20 28%25. Landlords must work harder and more global imperative of our time. The built 5. https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/ collaboratively to create environments As working from home has become environment alone generates emissions international/negotiations/paris_en that are attractive to the working world a more viable option, landlords have equivalent to 8.65 billion tonnes 6. Global data gathered in a 2021 survey conducted by WiredScore in partnership 3 – otherwise, their spaces simply an even greater need to cooperate of carbon dioxide .
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