Have a sustainability or efficiency problem? Learn how Schneider Electric is using an ecosystem approach around EcoStruxure to solve customer problems.
Originally published on Success Stories Corner by mroche1 | March 10, 2023 01:13 AM
Arc Skoru, a Schneider Electric Technology Partner, believes that operational performance data is central to the future of green building. A data-driven approach enables organizations to create, build, and operate spaces at unprecedented scale and speed. Ultimately, this advances our mission of promoting buildings and places that benefit people and the environment.
The Arc Technology Platform, offered by Arc Skoru on Schneider Electric Exchange, is a data-driven solution that empowers its users to understand how their building is performing. The data gathered by Arc helps building owners improve sustainability throughout their facilities.
Arc believes measured performance data provides the foundation for action; from that belief, they empower organizations to reduce energy waste, increase resilience, and promote well-being. In turn, demonstrating leadership in these areas sets the precedent for green building certification through third-party verification.
A global prioritization of sustainable built environments, along with growing concern about greenwashing has created the demand for data-driven, outcome-focused approaches to green building certification. Recognition of these trends underpins Arc’s partnership with Schneider Electric. This is reflected in Schneider Electric’s own facilities.
Le Hive in Paris and Technopole in Grenoble have worked with Arc to use measured, real-world performance as the basis for LEED certification showing that these facilities rank among global leaders in green building. They are a tangible manifestation of Schneider Electric’s commitment to sustainability, reflecting its six long-term sustainability commitments and supporting its track record of recognition as a market leader.
Armed with the expertise gained from their own project experience, Schneider Electric is especially equipped to support customers. Green building is evolving from a singular event – celebrating the completion of an exceptional project – to a long-term engagement to measure, track, and improve performance over time at scale.
This is accompanied by the need to make green building more accessible and consistently aligned with outcomes including energy efficiency and emissions reductions. Chris Pyke, Ph.D., Senior Vice President for USGBC and Arc Skoru, says, “Green buildings must deliver real world results – the future of green building will be measured performance. This will be proven through data and third-party review.”
Arc powers next-generation, performance-based rating systems, including LEED v4.1 O+M and LEED for Cities and Communities, and is expanding to support many more performance-based solutions. It helps automate the effort of gathering and sharing energy data critical to achieving green building certifications.
The platform integrates with the EcoStruxure IoT platform so that customers can easily deliver the data necessary to assess building performance; it also empowers users to act across entire portfolios and execute long-term improvement programs. Ultimately, these integrations result in less paperwork and more measurable outcomes.
Data is central to maintaining optimal building performance and meeting green building standards. Pyke explains that EcoStruxure™ Building Operation users benefit from an advanced, open-integration platform that empowers organizations to monitor, manage, and control building operations on one system.
With its open and secure integration framework, EcoStruxure Building Operation allows collaboration across third-party systems to create innovative custom solutions.
"Our digital solutions provide customers and partners with access to application data which they can use to either develop or deliver their services on top of our data," he says.
For example, the Arc platform helps buildings, city, and community projects collect data, manage and benchmark progress, measure impact, and improve sustainability. It aggregates data from various sources to calculate an overall sustainability score based on operational building performance data. This increasingly involves integrating with data partners, including the Schneider Electric EcoStruxure ecosystem. This is a win-win situation that enables EcoStruxure users to do more with their data by streamlining a path to performance-based certification.
According to Pyke, organizations are using Arc's integrated solution with EcoStruxure Building Operation solution in various business cases to accomplish key green business objectives.
“We are currently working with Schneider Electric EcoStruxure customers to plan and prioritize certification for globally-scaled portfolios of shopping center owners, retail stores, and offices,” he says.
These engagements take the leadership demonstrated at Technopole and Le Hive to scale and support entire organizations. These pathbreaking experiences provide the basis for practical case studies and application guides, including Building Performance Scoring using EcoStruxure Building Operation. This resource explains how to integrate and interface the Arc Performance scoring application with EcoStruxure Schneider Electric solutions deployed in a building.
Arc Skoru also offers a guide, Re-Entry Program Participation using EcoStruxure Building Operation, which provides an overview of how to ensure a safer return for people beginning to return to buildings for work and the places where we live, learn, and play.
Pyke highlights that enhancements are continually made so that customers can interface with data from any EcoStruxure service, allowing them to benchmark and track performance using Arc digital tools. Features include adding or transferring data from one site or hundreds of sites, including dynamic data such as energy measurements. This data is key for certifying or recertifying green buildings.
According to Pyke, EcoStruxure's open infrastructure vision enables Arc Skoru to design and deliver innovative certification services at scale, demonstrating the importance of open collaboration to innovation.
At Schneider Electric, a key aspect of innovation is empowering partners to leverage its infrastructure to help transform the green buildings of the future.
So, are you ready to collaborate?
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