How Siemens decodes decarbonization to improve internal real estate sustainability performance.

by Rich Madeira, Buildings group at Siemens Smart Infrastructure USA

We at Siemens have publicly committed to achieving a 55% CO2 emissions reduction by 2025 and a 90% reduction by 2030. We’ve already achieved a 46% CO2 reduction across our operations since 2019. One of the ways we are executing on long-term decarbonization commitments is through a recently announced initiative dubbed BOLD (Building Optimization through Lasting Decarbonization). The goal of the BOLD program is to modernize and further decarbonize Siemens’ global real estate assets.

Our real estate asset portfolio consists of thousands of commercial buildings, warehouses, data centers, distribution centers and manufacturing sites worldwide. Across that portfolio we emphasize sustainable business practices, work to electrify our manufacturing processes, and modify our operations to build more sustainable products.

The Siemens Real Estate team has outlined a green playbook for constructing low emissions buildings and for collaborating with partners on leasing green spaces. The team integrates LEED and wellness standards into the building designs they commission. When leasing, they make certain that landlords and property partners are doing the same, and that sustainable technologies enable low carbon operations.

Decarbonization in action in our factories

On the manufacturing side, Siemens has electrified what would have normally been fossil fuel-driven production in our plants. In Pomona, California, for example, we have a one-megawatt solar array and a one-megawatt battery, which allows our plant to generate its own electricity. The plant uses a microgrid to manage electricity on the site. One of the issues we see when building new manufacturing sites (which our customers also experience every day) is peak demand costs, demand response from the grid, and consistent access to energy. In California, the energy storage technology we have in place allows us to reduce afternoon grid energy consumption by using stored battery power when energy cost is at its peak. Then the plant recharges the batteries using the solar array.

Suggested best practices

Over the many years we’ve spent lowering our carbon emissions, we’ve discovered several approaches that we find highly effective.? These include:

·???????? Develop a structured, targeted approach - When managing decarbonization efforts across a real estate asset portfolio, we have found that a methodical approach works best. We evaluate our sites and identify our largest producers of carbon. In the U.S., we intend to run between 12 and 16 manufacturing sites through our BOLD program over the next four and a half to five years. That means moving away from traditional mechanical air handling units that use natural gas for heating purposes, and towards rooftop-mounted heat pumps, for instance.

?·???????? Combine technologies - Although many best-of-breed technologies work great on their own, we combine them through software and have found that “one plus one equals three” in terms of carbon reduction. We've learned through our own trial and error what we can do better. We are aggressive in bringing in new products that offer us a superior decarbonization solution.

We also look beyond our own technology to that of others. When it comes to decarbonization, no one company, no matter how big, can do it alone. Siemens goes through the vetting process to evaluate new and emerging technologies that we don't manufacture. We ask important questions like “Will it fit our application?” and “Is it the right technology for the right time?” When we collaborate with our own customers who are attempting to decarbonize, we share our lessons learned and educate them on different technologies both within and outside of our solution portfolio. We help them determine what makes sense and what doesn’t and show them living examples of how these innovative technologies operate.

·???????? Digitize operations with AI and predictive tools - Data and information are a critical foundation for addressing decarbonization issues. The faster we can grab data, collect it, assess it, and use it, the faster we address energy inefficiency and waste. For buildings that aren't smart and don't collect data, we provide essential infrastructure data gathering and connectivity technologies.

AI will allow us to complete data analysis tasks faster, smarter, and more autonomously. Five years from now, we'll be wondering how we ever lived without it. Within our Siemens real estate portfolio, AI plays an integral part in the technologies we roll out.

Our digital twin tools, for example, are exceptionally powerful. The ability to create today a digital model of tomorrow's commercial building and factory is invaluable to engineers. By running the digital twin through its processes and paces, stakeholders can determine how to best run the new facility and can accurately predict future carbon footprint and energy consumption. In this way, engineers can design facilities that meet long-term emissions reduction targets.

Now is the time to be BOLD

Global warming and its harmful effects are an inevitable challenge, one that no one can ignore. We are collectively at the tipping point. The 2030 emissions reduction target date is just around the corner. The technologies already exist today to radically curb building-based carbon emissions. From a deployment perspective, there's not much out there that companies like Siemens haven't seen or encountered before. The challenge is knowing which technology package is right for your emissions situation. By collaborating with experienced partners like Siemens –an organization that has successfully deployed such technologies across its own sites and across thousands of customer sites – the transition to low emissions will be far less daunting. The journey is doable and achieving aggressive carbon reduction goals is now possible.

To learn more, visit the Siemens Smart Infrastructure commercial real estate website, or the Siemens Real Estate webpage for more information.

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