A STUDY OF SMART AND GREEN BUILDINGS

Abstract

It is said that the major 75 per cent of a building’s total life cycle cost is operational, spanning over a building’s typical lifespan of about 25 to 30 years. This emphasizes the importance of effectively and efficiently managing a building, to ensure its sustainability. In order to achieve sustainability, a building should work towards being a green building. However, that may not be sufficient. The world is slowly moving towards a data-centric society, where technology can be seen to act as an enabler for green buildings, enhancing a building’s ‘greenness’ in terms of intelligence. Besides, most buildings are generally unable to ‘communicate’ with their facility managers and technology can help to bridge the communication gap between the building and its managers. Thus, this study helps to identify some major attributes within the green aspects of management, determining how technologies can play a role in being an enabler and supporting them. Then, case studies will be done on existing smart and green buildings globally to understand the current building practices. Sustainability does not equate simply to energy management, as there are many other aspects that need to be considered for a building to be truly sustainable. It was common for buildings to focus more on the energy management aspects of a building, and neglecting the water, waste and well-being management aspect, which are equally important. This study will then aim to determine some of the gaps that are hindering their progress today.