Earth Day is the perfect time for facility managers to evaluate their sustainability efforts and find new ways to go green. With climate change and resource scarcity becoming increasingly urgent issues, companies today need to take responsibility and spearhead environmental initiatives.

Connected, data-driven facilities powered by the Internet of Things (IoT) provide the insights and control needed to significantly reduce energy usage, emissions, waste, and more. Let’s explore some of the top benefits of leveraging smart building technologies to transform facilities into bastions of sustainability.

Monitoring Energy Usage and Emissions

Solutions like Open Kitchen and SiteSage install internet-connected sensors throughout buildings to track detailed energy usage data. Facility managers can identify high-consumption areas, optimize HVAC schedules based on occupancy patterns, and prevent issues like equipment left running overnight. 

With real-time energy monitoring and automation, organizations routinely reduce their energy usage by 10 to 20% or more and significantly cut costs. Across 10,000+ locations, Open Kitchen and SiteSage have helped customers avoid nearly 2 billion pounds of CO2 emissions annually—the equivalent of removing over 150,000 cars off the road for a year! Their AI-powered “DemandSmart” feature further reduces emissions by optimizing equipment usage to lower peak demand charges.

Preventing Equipment Failures  

Unexpected equipment breakdowns require urgent repairs, lead to food or product loss, and disrupt operations. With proactive monitoring from smart systems, facility managers can identify impending failures through performance anomalies and schedule preventative maintenance during off-hours. This eliminates costly reactive repairs, which are estimated to be 3X more expensive than preventative maintenance. Keeping assets running efficiently for longer also reduces the environmental impact of manufacturing and disposing of new replacements.

Reducing Food Waste

The USDA estimates that 30 to 40% of food is wasted in the supply chain before reaching consumers. Remote refrigeration monitoring offered by solutions like Open Kitchen helps prevent spoilage by alerting staff to temperature fluctuations or equipment malfunctions. Maintaining proper storage conditions ensures the maximum amount of food remains edible for consumption. Data analytics further reduce waste by providing insight into ideal food production volumes and inventory levels.

Optimizing Water Usage 

IoT solutions can connect to water meters, leak detection sensors, weather data, and more to analyze water consumption patterns closely. Facility managers can identify anomalies, reduce unnecessary usage, and prevent leaks from going unnoticed. Smart irrigation systems further optimize water usage outdoors by automatically adjusting sprinkler schedules based on weather forecasts.

Saving Employees Time

People are a core component of any facility’s sustainability program. IoT platforms provide mobile access to energy dashboards so occupants can see the real-time impact of their behavior. The ability to collect and analyze granular occupancy analytics further optimizes heating, cooling, and lighting usage based on when people are actually present.

Open Kitchen helps people in the hospitality industry do what they love: be hospitable. For example, automating data collection saved one national foodservice chain 3,000,000 hours of administrative time, freeing staff to focus on customers.

Conclusion

This Earth Day, leverage the power of connected facilities to take your sustainability initiatives to the next level. With real-time data and control over assets, building systems, and equipment, organizations can continuously identify new optimization opportunities and encourage employees to support the mission. 

Interested in using IoT technology to make your facility more efficient and environmentally friendly? Reach out to a member of our team to start the conversation.