Constructive Clarity by Vikrant Duggal

The Story of Stuff

Link: http://www.storyofstuff.com

This video will take roughly 20 minutes to watch, but definitely worth it. Annie Leonard, an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues, is passionate and provocative.

The goal of this video is: to expose the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues and call for all of us to create a more sustainable world.

Johnson Controls goes LEED Platinum

 

This is very cool!

My company is doing a world's first! In what will be a $73M expansion and remodeling that will feature solar, geothermal, and possibly, wind power, Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) is seeking the highest environmental rating for its Glendale corporate headquarters.

The project at the Johnson Controls campus, 5757 N. Green Bay Ave., includes gutting and renovating the corporate headquarters building, constructing a headquarters for the company's power solutions business, and constructing an amenities building and a four-story parking garage.

Debrah Vander Heiden, manager of architecture and design at Johnson Controls, said the project is on track to achieve what it would need to apply for a platinum rating under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a rating system created by the U.S. Green Building Council. Platinum is the highest LEED certification.

If Johnson Controls achieves such certification, it would make it the first and only multibuilding LEED platinum-certified location in the world, Vander Heiden said.

5 ways to excel as a commercial property manager

 
The property management (PM) industry is one that is currently going through some radical changes and after speaking with some folks on the residential and commercial side, I've come up with a list. Now bear in mind, I'm not discussing high standards of service. That is a precursor to property management. So you'll have to check that box before you can move on to anything on this list..

1. Building management and engineering expertise
Your senior management and operational staff need to have expertise in leasing, construction, and property management. Construction folks need to have background in working for a vendor or a service contractor as they need to understand how those firms operate and set criteria to determine whether they are getting the value for the dollars spend.

2. Recognize the power of IT assets
Information technology (IT) must be viewed as an enabler (this is very rare among real estate owners and PM firms). You must interconnect the network from a centralized property management location. This centralized management enables you to optimize staffing resource without sacrificing customer service. You will also be able to have around the clock visibility.

Leveraging wireless technologies and incorporating a central command center overseeing IT and building automation systems in all properties is helpful in reducing costs, increasing responsiveness and reliability, and communicating with onsite maintenance staff for rapid follow-through.. Utilizing a web-based tenant portal also come in handy here.

In the case where a PM is constructing a new site, or involved with one, the network can also connect construction crews.

3. Management of systems and vendors
I wrote about building management and engineering expertise in the beginning. This is all about managing what's there. When acquiring new properties into your portfolio, you may come across legacy building systems, multiple service contractors, web-based and non-web-based solutions. It behooves you manage these effectively until you...

4. Have a technology road map
This is so crucial it probably should be #1 on the list, but if you don't have the first three, this will be pointless. A truly integrated solution takes time to develop and mature, but the industry is changing quite rapidly, so you have to have enough of a plan so that as technologies change, you can make modifications. A rigid road map will do you no good. Here is when you can look to use technology to find payback on new development projects.

5.Energy management awareness
As energy costs become important, as companies look to have assets that are more sustainable and as consumers become more aware, this will become more important, not only for PMs to understand energy trends for each property, but share them with their customers.

End of list.

As building automation systems adopt IT standards, they are increasingly converging with traditional IT infrastructures. As Internet technology permeates digital devices throughout buildings, real estate managers can focus on developing creating cost-effective strategies, enabled by innovative software.

THE BIG CHALLENGE: If these methods are not being utilized, then these innovative practices will challenge the current operating assumptions.

For your building: Service Oriented Architecture

The concept of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has existed for some time in the IT world. Service Oriented Architecture is defined as a system's architectural style for creating and using business processes, packaged as services, through their lifecycle. As IT spending grows even larger for new building construction, we will see SOA entering the building space with great vigor.

With the number of discrete low voltage systems and disparate data sub-systems growing in any facility today, it's not a giant leap to say that these systems should be connected via the network to allow communication and distill and prioritize notifications coming.

Architectural and Engineering design firms that are looking to stay competitive and remain in the game will find it necessary to change to a service oriented model. Specifying product will slowly erode and where, in the past, they were finding it difficult to find the right product vendors and installation teams to work in concert with electrical and mechanical trades, they will find the help of a technology trade more critical than ever before.

This shift will be an enabler to distribute SOA applications for the environment that encapsulate not only specialty systems, but security, HVAC, and other typical building systems.

This combination of services affords safety, obsolescence proofing, feature-teaming among existing legacy systems. The building will now do more than it ever could - on it's own: producing root cause analysis and statistical data based upon any parameter that the system interfaces to.

This brings up a concept my friend Jeff discusses frequently - Outcomes vs. Outputs. More on that later.

Data Centers: HP now the big dog?

On May 13, 2008 HP acquired EDS. This put the revenue brought in by IT services in 2007 to a whopping $38B, becoming a challenging #2 to IBM, at $54B. Great, but so what? Recall back in November 2007 when HP quietly acquired EYP Mission Critical Facilities, a data center design firm.

Today HP is the lone vendor capable of planning, designing, building, equipping, and supporting large scale data centers from cradle to grave. The current data center market is in refresh mode as many were built in the late 1990s when the first bubble bulged. These centers are nearing end of life. Granted, HP would have to be able to sell the one throat to choke model. I'm convinced the only way HP will make this happen is if there is a change in their sales force which could take years.

However, the direction they are probably heading is vastly different. With Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in the battle of who can build the largest cloud the fastest (and probably most efficiently), HP is losing customers and will have to get in the game. With a recent acquisition of Marc Andreesen's Opsware, a data center automation firm, and plans to buy 24 data centers from British Telecom, HP could very well be constructing its own cloud.

One thing is for sure, HP can now build the most optimal data centers in the world if they chose too.

Conclusion: HP is now the big dog in the data center market.

Data Centers to be largest polluter by 2020

Link: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/data-centers-are-becoming-big-polluters-study-finds/

An article in the Times earlier this month points out that data centers will most likely surpass the airline industry as a greenhouse gas polluter by 2020. At least that what McKinsey & Co. thinks.

Major Points of the study:

• CO2 emissions attributable to the electricity consumed will rise fourfold
• Cost and energy-savings opportunities are being squandered
• Mainframe-style management disciplines not utilized in modern data servers
• Corporations should set the goal of doubling the efficiency of their data centers by 2012
• Proposes the Corporate Average Data Efficiency (CADE) - like a miles per gallon for data centers

Last note - The link reference is great as there are some useful comments below the post

Shipping container condos come to Detroit

Crunchgear just posted about these condos in Detroit that will be made out of shipping containers.

Highlights:

• Project cost: $1.8M (25% less than would have otherwise cost)
• Not a new idea
• Energy savings to homeowners roughly 60%

Would you live in one of these?

A visual approach to technology contracting

Click to enlarge

Source: Technology Contracting, James F. Dagley, Johnson Controls, 2007

Smart buildings: defined

You will not find a smart building in North America. You might think you can, but after this post, you'll think twice. First things first. "How do you define 'smart'?" you ask. Great question. How about this for starters:

• HVAC and power consumption is regulated according to the number of people in the building
• Clear understanding of how building services are being consumed; tenants are charged accordingly
• Smart infrastructure recognizes each individual as they walk into rooms
• Building services tailored to personal preferences
• Instant access to required IT and communications systems

PS - You can do all this today. Utilizing embedded Internet technologies, deploying inexpensive chip sets, and changing the way we manage electrical and data systems, it is possible to transform the way we interact with built environments.

The Infrastructure
Every building consists of a 4-layer dip:

• Layer 4: Software
• Layer 3: Products
• Layer 2: Technical Infrastructure (digital/mechanical/electrical systems)
• Layer 1: Building framework

Each layer has its own life span. The software, at level "zero" becomes obsolete as it comes out; the products have roughly a 2-year life span; the technical infrastructure 10, and the building structure itself, 50. The importance of the dip is that each layer needs to be embedded in the layer below it. As we will see, this integrated infrastructure will allow building owner to switch from a function-driven, device-oriented platform to a service-oriented platform. This will increase a building's value by reducing capital and labor and streamlining operational efficiencies

The smart-building platform

Compare IT equipment to traditional building devices (e.g. lamps, blinds, elevators, security and access-control systems). IT devices perform better - almost by a factor of 10,000. However, in a typical built environment there will be 10 times as many devices per person that control and manage the building than IT devices per person. Owners must take this into account when assessing what they should be charging for smart-building services.

Source: ETH Zurich, 2006

The answer lies in the IP
There are millions of traditional electrical devices installed in built environments today - this is a huge obstacle to overcome. In order to create a smart building, consistency must be brought to the user interface and data and communication standards must be normalized to the IP.

If you can do this, then adding a new device becomes and issues of plug-and-play. This WILL have an impact on maintenance costs and energy management. Think of the amount of money spent on keeping appliances on standby. If you could manage a simple television set (consumes 20 watts in standby mode) via an Internet-based communications infrastructure you significantly cut energy cost (down to 0.2 watts).

To solve this problem, a high-voltage/low-cost chip can be integrated into any electrical device and networked across the existing electrical wiring. This chip would allow users to control devices via an IP connection so that they can turn devices on and off, switch channels on a TV, open and close window blinds, control individual lights, etc.

Simplify the process
As I've spoken about many times, the current building process is a major challenge today and especially so in implementing IP-based building control and management. Electrical engineering and technology engineering are following two different design, procurement, and construction paths. When utilizing existing electrical wiring, electrical engineering is not impacted - there are no new tools to learn, no programming, no training, no cabling. In new construction, capital and labor costs are reduced.

Clarity Found
Today we think in terms of devices. This mindset needs to shift and we need to focus on the network. Devices today should be classified as "sensors" or "activators". Where sensors pick up images, sound or building operations such as cameras, activators react to these inputs - they include multi-functional displays to show images and light bulbs and activate heaters to provide a healthy and comfortable environment.

Setting up your digital environment in the form of sensors and activators allows you to organize your device free from the constraints of software. A telephone, for example consists of a mic and speaker (which can also be used as an mp3 player), while the "phone" itself is software - think iPhone.

Example: Individuals will be able to turn on the lights open and close windows an access video through just one device.

Make it happen
The key to adopting this concept is the fact that a smart building is built around one generic chip that is mass-produced and therefore, relatively inexpensive. No new skills are required by electricians, common interface makes for a comfortable migration path for users, so there is likely to be little resistance to adoption.

Today's buildings are managed from a functional perspective; we need to move to a services philosophy creating significant energy savings, operational efficiencies, and a far more attractive environment for building occupants.

Just a question before I end - Any smart buildings in North America?

CIBSE seeing changes in how we construct buildings

Link: http://www.cibseashrae.org/rooley1003.htm

In the 1970s we used slide rules in the construction design process. The computer arrived in 2000. The change in the use of our technology for design and the use of technology in our buildings will change even faster between now and 2015. I ran across a paper by Richard Rooley from 2003 and wanted to highlight some key points.

Before I list some highlights from the paper, here are some global building statistics:

• 4.7 million commercial buildings = 63.7 billion square feet
• 50% of buildings 1,001-5,000 s.f.
• 75% of buildings are less than 10,000 s.f.

6 Paper Highlights

1. Design engineers spend between 10-20% of their time on matters of technology as set out by ASHRAE standards (roughly less than one day per week).
2. Architects generally dominate the design process. They provide leadership, employ the consultants and sub-contractors, and specify the scope. Consultants are paid by the architect out of the architect's fee.
3. In the U.S. and U.K. changes are being seen in the formation of the construction chain. In both cases, the owners and developers are hiring consultants and contractors directly in order to reduce costs.
4. Generally accepted that structural engineers work with great integrity for the need for the building to never fall. Although the same can apply to refrigeration, this integrity is not a driver in air-conditioning. Most of the time the design is cost related.
5. While each skill within the construction industry is very well educated, and indeed training in that narrow field, there are great problems in communication, a fuzzy edge disease.
6. As horses were replaced by the motor car, so will our present design processes and tools be replaced, but the rate of change will be much faster.