REDEFINING THE FUTURE OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION - Through Building Optimisation

Louise Collins, the head of Engineering & Energy at JLL, shares her thoughts on fresh air rates, retail usage, lifecycle investments, system diversities, and renewable energy laying the groundwork for a new era of building operations

- Louise Collins

In recent years, sustainability has been recognised by emerging and newly-industrialised economies to have a positive impact on a wide range of sectors.

A year ago, real estate investment managers and developers were focused on responding to a low-carbon economy as demands for action over climate change was growing. But equally important today is the drive for value and savings for building owners. With the economic pressures of the pandemic, companies are looking internally on ways to reduce energy demand of their assets, which in turn will help with reinvestment.

In many cases, the reinvestments are then used to adjust business operations to new market trends or can be used as offsets to reduced leasing income.

As a driver of development, various investment managers have been actively working to bolster and revive sustainable infrastructure through various means.

Growing, preserving and creating such infrastructure is not just about ticking boxes. Instead, investment managers and developers should look to identifying solutions and giving clients the mechanisms to make significant energy reduction, utility bill reduction and a carbon reduction.

There are a few significant changes that have taken place over the last 10-15 years and have the potential to generate value – these include:

The fresh air rates from ASHRAE 62.1

Although the amount of fresh air required under ASHRAE has not changed in the last 15 years, the ‘methodology’ in which these are introduced into the spaces have evolved. Now, there are multiple energy recovery devices that will allow for a reduction in energy spent in the process.

The devices include enthalpy wheels (single/dual), horseshoe heat pipes, desiccant wheels, and liquid desiccants among others.