Developing Urgency: Empowering Smart Building Technology for a Sustainable Future

Network solutions will play a significant role in developing sustainable, future-proof buildings and cities. Currently, smart building technology is at the confluence of two growing trends: the continual migration of populations into city centers, and the crisis of climate change motivating sustainable infrastructure choices.?

The climate crisis represents a threat to the future health of our planet. According to a 2021 report by the Climate Action Tracker group, the world is headed for 2.4 C warming by the end of the century, a trend which will continue to fuel more intense storms, heat waves, and droughts, driving instability at the foundations of human societies around the globe. Now is a critical time for sustainable practices to be implemented throughout our economic systems to reduce the impact of human activities on the planet.

As a result of this burgeoning crisis, governments are stepping in to curb their emissions with emissions targets. The UK and EU have set the goal of net zero by 2050, while also setting the intermediate target of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. These targets will shape economic choices in the years to come, especially in the face of the global trend of city migration.?

City development is projected to grow dramatically over the next few decades as populations flow into cities. Over 68% of humankind is expected to live in cities by 2050, more than 2.5 billion more than live in cities today. Cities will be forced to grow and, if they rely on traditional building solutions, will contribute excessive emissions. Currently, buildings contribute 39% of annual global CO2 emissions. Most of these emissions come from operational carbon, or emissions produced by the building’s operation and energy consumption. The remaining emissions are embodied carbon, or emissions created from the manufacture, transportation, and construction of building materials. Continual migration into cities will drive demand for buildings, however meeting this demand will be constrained by the need to build and operate these buildings sustainably.

Smart buildings offer the solution to grow cities while meeting sustainability goals.?For this reason, the global smart city industry is expected to double from 2020 to 2025, a growth from $410 billion (€416.7 billion) to $821 billion (€834.4 billion). The smart building market is expected to grow from 80.6B (€82B) to $328.6B?(€334B) in 2029.?Smart buildings require a networking backbone to allow?all of the building’s Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, appliances, and systems to work in concert to efficiently monitor usage, waste, and consumption.?

To enable building owners and IT professionals to adopt smart technologies more easily, Leviton developed a new network architecture concept called?ULAN?, or the utility LAN. As building systems such as HVAC, lighting, security, communications, and consumer applications converge onto the Core LAN (the Local Area Network traditionally consisting of workstations, VoIP, and WAPs), the network can become overloaded by each additional connection. Additionally, each new connection is a potential portal into the Core LAN which is a security risk. A separate utility LAN or ULAN is a network architecture that enables greater IT network efficiency, by connecting and powering “utility” devices (IoT). The uLAN architecture provides IT professionals a way to incorporate smart technology into their buildings and be more sustainable while maximizing network security and minimizing disruption to the Core LAN.

?Learn more about a ULAN and Leviton connectivity?here.