Give Us the Power!
BREO Part 4— Enabling Planet-centric Action
This is the fourth part of a series that describes a method for making buildings smarter by engaging occupants in the effort to reduce building consumption.
Commercial buildings today are designed for low-touch or no-touch interaction. When we come into an office the building attends to our every need. Lights turn on automatically when we enter a space. Heating and cooling are preset to a fixed temperature based on a generic level of comfort. Power and water are available everywhere and at all times. This is all very accommodating. The buildings are “taking good care of us”. However, these amenities disconnect us from the destruction we inadvertently cause as we receive these comforts. What and how much of our planet is being extracted and consumed for our convenience? As occupants, we seem to bear no responsibility for the resource consumption happening on our behalf.
Why are we so disconnected from our environment when we are at the office? To begin with, we usually have no way of understanding the environmental impact of our workplaces. In contrast, when we look at the potted plant in the hallway, we can see if it’s “thirsty”, and if it is, we might give the plant a cup of water. Then, soon, it will “express” our care. This is a model for how our buildings can be, too.
When we create autonomous buildings, we simultaneously create systems that remove any sense of responsibility from the inhabitants. Even the most ecologically minded people have little knowledge or agency to make a difference in the office.
Previously in this series I addressed why and how we might provide sensory data that informs us about how our buildings are doing with respect to resource consumption benchmarks. Once informed, we need to act. Some may ask, “What can we do? We are often prevented from making adjustments to our environment”. Research by Comfy, a maker of building control software, suggests that there are ways to give people the power to influence their environment. In the case of thermal comfort, for example, Lindsay Baker, President of Comfy, says:
The reality is that the way we experience temperature is impacted by a lot of factors, not just the air temperature, but also the sun exposure, air speed, what we are wearing, personal metabolic rates. So it doesn’t make much sense to use this one arbitrary air temperature setting for all spaces at all times. Most people will be unhappy.
Instead, he says:
…let’s recognize that we are going to need adjustments throughout the day and let people make those adjustments immediately when they need it and where they need it.”[i]
Although he is probably talking about providing ways of allowing us to create a more comfortable environment, this type of system can also allow us to respond to how much energy these systems use. This is the second component of BREO (Building Resource Expression for Occupants). Once you have informed occupants of what their building is consuming, give them the agency to respond.
What can we do to help?
Here are a few things that we as developers, owners, architects, designers, and engineers should consider allowing and enabling occupants to do:
- Turn off lights (and leave them off until someone actively turns them on again. Current energy regulations often have systems to turn lights off automatically when there is no activity but frequently lights are left on beyond when they are needed.)
- Switch off utility power in areas that are unused
- Shut down computers
- Turn off unused appliances
- Turn off conference room AV equipment
- Adjust the thermostat
- Open windows and adjust shades
- Wear appropriate clothes for the season
In addition to this ability to control our consumption, we need to know, in real time, when we are using too much. It may take some time to “learn the behavior” of our building, much like tending to new plants in the garden, but this is necessary to raise our awareness of what a building is doing on our behalf.
Once we are more conscious of our impact we can be more conscientious about our actions.
Giving us the agency to respond to our building’s role in planetary depletion may be the key to more efficient buildings in addition to technological solutions.
The final component of a BREO system is to work together and encourage each other in order to reach our goals and help save our planet. The next part in this series will address how we might gather together to create a community of conservation.
