How to improve the environment

Sustainability is an increasing value in companies. In this field, technology is an excellent ally, not only in energy consumption and water and waste management of a commercial building but also in the detailed data determination to make a more accurate environmental report.

With automation and sensor integration in a centralized control panel, which receives data in real time, managers can discover invisible problems and how to save (and even earn) money. Here are four solutions that provide an intelligent sustainability dashboard to solve problems and improve environmental report metrics.

In an automated system, sensors pick up unusual occurrences in building facilities and immediately activate an alert. This way, problems are encountered even outside office hours or maintenance, reducing response time and waste of water and energy.

The sustainability dashboard also allows you to cross data to discover energy waste, checking, for example, whether air conditioning and light are turned on in empty rooms or whether water is used at really needed times (preferably outside of peak hours).

Because the sensors built into the control panel transmit information in real-time, the administrator can control consumption schedules to reduce it, where possible, at times when electricity is most expensive and can set a goal to receive alerts when there is an opportunity for consumption outside of peak hours.

The report generated by the system shows deviation points, at which there is a water or energy consumption that should not be. Older buildings, for example, may have unidentified leaks, of which the company does not suspect that there is no increase in the water bill.

The integration of a digital hydrometer reading with the control panel allows you to identify anomalies such as rolling water at times when the building is empty, such as at dawn (in case the taps are closed incorrectly). The system also calculates the optimum consumption according to the number of users and shows if it is above what is expected; this way, you can identify pathologies of ancient buildings, such as a broken pipe, years ago, but not detected because there is no change in the (already high) value of the water bill.

Large companies usually have a waste center, but few manage to extract reliable data on what they do with the discarded material for inclusion in the environmental report. Monitoring waste, for example, is an opportunity to reuse it (as fertilizer or biogas) and even make money by selling organic waste as a raw material. In addition, the company can get interesting information about how much it recycles and how much waste each area produces.

To get this data, control is installed in the waste center. Each garbage bag that enters is heavy; the employee indicates, by a tablet, for example, what kind of material goes there, and the information is sent to the system immediately. Knowing how much waste is in the center for disposal, it is also possible to make better use of garbage containers (and not pay to dispose of a small volume).

When the company takes measures to reduce its environmental impact and makes good communication of these goals to employees, it naturally encourages a behavioral change in the team. Installing sensors and appliances and monitoring water and energy consumption is a measure that can influence employees to adopt more conscious consumption.